adverb
in a random manner (Freq. 1)
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the houses were randomly scattered
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bullets were fired into the crowd at random
• Syn: ↑randomly, ↑indiscriminately, ↑haphazardly, ↑willy-nilly, ↑arbitrarily, ↑every which way
• Derived from adjective: ↑haphazard (for: ↑haphazardly), ↑indiscriminate (for: ↑indiscriminately), ↑random (for: ↑randomly)
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UNSYSTEMATICALLY, arbitrarily, randomly, unmethodically, haphazardly.
→ random
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adverbupon the table soiled dishes were piled at random — William Faulkner
worn cow paths led through at random — Christopher Rand
to be left at random
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at random phrase
without a particular method, pattern, or purpose
They picked names out of the telephone book at random.
Thesaurus: not plannedsynonym
Main entry: random
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without method or conscious decision
he opened the book at random
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at random
: in a way that does not follow a particular plan or pattern
Our names were chosen/selected/picked at random from the list.
People drifted in and out of the gallery at random all evening.
• • •
Main Entry: ↑random
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at ˈrandom idiom
without deciding in advance what is going to happen, or without any regular pattern
•
She opened the book at random
(= not at any particular page)and started reading.
•
The terrorists fired into the crowd at random.
•
Names were chosen at random from a list.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.