noun
definition
Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.
adjective
definition
(usually of a decision) Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
example
Benjamin Franklin's designation of "positive" and "negative" to different charges was arbitrary.
definition
Determined by impulse rather than reason; heavy-handed.
definition
Any, out of all that are possible.
example
The equation is true for an arbitrary value of x.
definition
Determined by independent arbiter.
definition
Not representative or symbolic; not iconic.
Examples of arbitrary in a Sentence
The committee had arbitrary rules.
The assumption was arbitrary, based on no valid evidence.
Authoritarian parents may not understand the reasons behind the rules they make or communicate these underlying reasons to their children, making their commands seem arbitrary to their children.
Whether you prefer canary or white diamonds, the important thing is to choose jewelry and gemstones that genuinely appeal to your personal sense of style, not simply because of an arbitrary value put on them by someone else.
The borders assigned to Asia on the west are somewhat arbitrary.
Their attention can seem arbitrary when they become bored and decide to move on.
To reduce these figures to a common standard, so that the volumes shall contain equal numbers of molecules, the notion of molecular volumes is introduced, the arbitrary values of the crystallographic axes (a, b, c) being replaced by the topic parameters' (x, ?i, w), which are such that, combined with the axial angles, they enclose volumes which contain equal numbers of molecules.
In the first his " chief object was to discover and demonstrate the laws of progress, and to exhibit in one unbroken sequence the collective destinies of mankind, till then invariably regarded as a series of events wholly beyond the reach of explanation, and almost depending on arbitrary will.
Also it is purely arbitrary to erect the consequences of these six principles into a separate science.
The downside is that not all women have regular 28 day cycles or some just don't ovulate at exactly midway between periods so these two weeks can be completely arbitrary.
From this principle, it follows (I) that the distinction between right and wrong is part of the constitution of human nature; (2) that morality stands apart from theology, and the moral qualities of actions are determined apart from the arbitrary will of God; (3) that the ultimate test of an action is its tendency to promote the general harmony or welfare; (4) that appetite and reason concur in the determination of action; and (5) that the moralist is not concerned to solve the problem of freewill and determinism.
The so-called era of the creation of the world is therefore a purely conventional and arbitrary epoch; practically, it means the year 4004 B.C., - this being the date which, under the sanction of Archbishop Usher's opinion, won its way, among its hundreds of competitors, into general acceptance.
He also followed his master in laying stress on the arbitrary will of God as the foundation of morality.
A new law, passed by both houses and confirmed by the emperor, took from the executive all power over journals, except in cases of lse majest, and nothing now remains of the former arbitrary system except that any periodical having a political complexion is required to deposit security varying from 175 to 1000 yen.
But this procedure in itself is not sufficient, because, although it would be highly probable that a gas obeying Boyle's law at all temperatures was practically an ideal gas, it is evident that Boyle's law would be satisfied by any substance having the characteristic equation pv = f (0), where f (0) is any arbitrary function of 0, and that the scale of temperatures given by such a substance would not necessarily coincide with the absolute scale.
This gives by equation (9) the condition Odp/d0 =p, which is satisfied by any substance possessing the characteristic equation p/0=f(v), where f(v) is any arbitrary function of v.
The characteristic equation of the fluid must then be of the form v/0=f(p), where f(p) is any arbitrary function of p. If the fluid is a gas also obeying Boyle's law, pv = f (0), then it must be an ideal gas.
Putting d0/dp=A/0 2 in equation (15), and integrating on the assumption that the small variations of S could be neglected over the range of the experiment, they found a solution of the type, v/0 =f(p) - SA /30 3, in which f(p) is an arbitrary function of p. Assuming that the gas should approximate indefinitely to the ideal state pv = R0 at high temperatures, they put f(p)=Rip, which gives a characteristic equation of the form v= Re/p - SA /30 2 .
The work, he says, is the "production of a decided partisan," who "rakes in the ashes of long-forgotten and a thousand times buried slanders, 1 Lord Brougham, overlooking the constitutional chapter in the Middle Ages, censured Hallam for making an arbitrary beginning at this point, and proposed to write a more complete history himself.
But Paez, who commanded in Venezuela, having been accused of arbitrary conduct in the enrolment of the citizens of Caracas in the militia, refused obedience to the summons of the senate, and placed himself in a state of open rebellion against the government, being encouraged by a disaffected party in the northern departments who desired separation from the rest of the republic.
Richard soon afterwards, by declaring himself of age, shook off his uncle's control, and within ten years the acts of the Wonderful Parliament were reversed by a parliament no less arbitrary.
A special enactment protects tenants against arbitrary treatment at the hands of landlords in respect of notice to quit and raising of rents.
In India the native weights, &c., ancient and arbitrary, are still followed.
The slow progress of the war, the severe sacrifice of life in campaign and battle, the enormous accumulation of public debt, arbitrary arrests and suspension of habeas corpus, the rigour of the draft, and the proclamation of military emancipation furnished ample subjects of bitter and vindictive campaign oratory.
The system was exploitedby attackers to access sensitive information or run arbitrary code on an affected machine.
This is a fairly arbitrary number that may, in fact, vary with genetic differences and depends on a normal menstrual cycle, which varies considerably from woman to woman.
In the first of these books his nomenclature is unfortunate; his division of ethical theories into the " unpsychological," " idiopsychological," and the " hetero-psychological," is incapable of historical justification; his exposition of single ethical systems is, though always interesting and suggestive, often arbitrary and inadequate, being governed by dialectical exigencies rather than historical order and perspective.
This arbitrary sentence was obeyed in the first instance by both parties, and Norfolk never returned.
Buchanan, which has an arbitrary scale and can be varied in weight by placing small metal rings on the stem so as to depress the scale to any desired depth in sea-water of any salinity, the specific gravity being calculated for each reading by dividing the total weight by the immersed volume; (3) the total immersion areometer, which has no scale and the weight of which can be adjusted so that the instrument can be brought so exactly to the specific gravity of the water sample that it remains immersed, neither floating nor sinking; this has the advantage of 'eliminating the effects of surface tension and in Fridtjof Nansen's pattern is capable of great precision.
This restriction is to a certain extent arbitrary.
Here there are two arbitrary constants, which may be adjusted in various ways.
It denied his right to levy certain war taxes, and when it had in vain protested to him against his arbitrary measures it sent a petition, in 1644, to the States-General for his recall, and this was granted.
Nicolls resigned the governorship in 1668, but his successor, Francis Lovelace, continued his policy - autocratic government, arbitrary in form but mild in practice, and progressive in the matter of religious toleration.
The new king was offended by Williams's advice to proceed with caution in dealing with the parliament, with the result that within a few months of Charles's accession the Great Seal was taken from Williams. In the quarrel between the king and the Commons over the petition of right, Williams took the popular side in condemning arbitrary imprisonment by the sovereign.
If this is done for every point we obtain a continuous curve Apbqcrd, which represents the displacement at every point at the given instant, though by a length at right angles to the actual displacement and on an arbitrary scale.
In 1854, in their resistance of an arbitrary tax, the miners came into armed conflict with the authorities; but a commission was appointed to investigate their grievances; and a charter was granted to the town in 1855.
At the age of nineteen he invented an electromagnetic engine, and in the course of examining its performance dissatisfaction with vague and arbitrary methods of specifying elec rical quantities caused him to adopt a convenient and scie tific unit, which he took to be the amount of electricity req ired to decompose nine grains of water in one hour.
Domitian had been arbitrary and high-handed, and had heaped favours on the soldiery while humiliating the senate; Nerva showed himself anxious to respect the traditional privileges of the senate, and such maxims of constitutional government as still survived.
If his practice fell far short even of his own arbitrary standard of morality, as much may be said of persons far more dogmatically orthodox.
On the 11th of February 1477 she was compelled to sign a charter of rights, known as "the Great Privilege," by which the provinces and towns of the Netherlands recovered all the local and communal rights which had been abolished by the arbitrary decrees of the dukes of Burgundy in their efforts to create in the Low Countries a centralized state.
There was also the boundless abuse and arbitrary exercise of the right of ecclesiastical patronage (provisions, reservations); and further the ever-increasing traffic in dispensations, the abuse of spiritual punishments for worldly ends, and so forth.
The modern arrangement is somewhat arbitrary and there are several marked discrepancies between it and the account given xxv.
Laud's complete neglect of the national sentiment, in his belief that the exercise of mere power was sufficient to suppress it, is a principal proof of his total lack of true statesmanship. The hostility to "innovations in religion," it is generally allowed, was a far stronger incentive to the rebellion against the arbitrary power of the crown, than even the violation of constitutional liberties; and to Laud, therefore, more than to Strafford, to Buckingham, or even perhaps to Charles himself, is especially due the responsibility for the catastrophe.
When the Long Parliament met, the Catholics were believed to be the authors and agents of every arbitrary scheme which was supposed to have entered into the plans of Strafford or Laud.
Denoting the value of T at any velocity v by T (v), then (8) T(v) = sum of all the preceding values of AT plus an arbitrary constant, expressed by the notation (9) T(v) =Z(Av)/gp+ a constant, or fdv/gp+ a constant, in which p is supposed known as a function of v.
The constant may be any arbitrary number, as in using the table the difference only is required of two tabular values for an initial velocity V and final velocity v; and thus (to) T(V) - T(v) = Ev Ov/gp or fvdv/gp; and for a shot whose ballistic coefficient is C (II) t=C[T(V) - T(v)].
That they are in some cases produced by physical or sensory stimuli does not constitute them irrational, and it is purely arbitrary to confine the word pleasure to those cases in which such stimuli are the proximate causes.
There is no greater mistake than to suppose that the estimate formed by the early Church of its Bible was a merely arbitrary verdict imposed by an external authority; it was the expression, and the natural expression (though following certain prescribed lines), of its real sense of the value and fundamentally divine origin of the writings which it treasured.
It is an arbitrary line and follows only two natural lines of demarcation - the Suchiate river from the Pacific coast to its source, and the Chixoy and Usumacinta rivers from near the 16th parallel N.W.
A constitution on the French imperial pattern granted by the king remained practically inoperative, an arbitrary bureaucratic regime was instituted, the finances were from the beginning in a hopeless condition, and the country was drained of men and money for Napoleon's wars.