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# arbitrary

«arbitrary» in Mova's judaism dictionary: **chosen by chance or by someone's wish, not for a good…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (arbitrary; more arbitrary)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Arbitrary means chosen by chance or by someone's wish, not for a good reason or rule. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#m1)

2) (maths) An arbitrary number is any number you pick, used to show a rule works for all. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#m2)

3) Unfair power used without rules: an arbitrary punishment. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: «take an arbitrary point», «an arbitrary whole number»; in ethics and fairness: arbitrary rules feel unjust; in everyday talk for random choices.

### examples

- All the other commentaries mentioned above, together with all quotations of other expounders of the same book, contain nothing but a medley of arbitrary, mystical explanations and sophistical distortions of scriptural verses, astrological notions, oriental (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x1)
- The order of the names was arbitrary. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x2)
- Pick an arbitrary number and double it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x3)
- The rule seemed arbitrary to the pupils. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x4)
- It was an arbitrary punishment with no warning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x5)
- The starting point on the line is arbitrary. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x6)
- Giving prizes by height is arbitrary. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/#x7)

### note

Pronounced AR-bi-tra-ry (UK often AR-bi-tree). In maths «arbitrary» means «any one, whichever you choose», so a fact shown for an arbitrary number is true for all of them. Adverb: arbitrarily.

### In the corpora

- [Most words are arbitrary: the link between a word and its meaning is a habit of the speakers, not something in nature.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «arbitrary» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/A/arbitrary/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.