random

Universal Words adjective, noun adjective [usuallybeforenoun] done, chosen, etc. without sb thinking or deciding in advance what is going to happen: the random killing of innocent people * a random sample / selection (= in which each thing has an equal chance of being chosen) * The information is processed in a random order. randomly adverb: The winning numbers are randomly selected by computer. randomness noun [U]: It introduced an element of randomness to the situation. noun IDIOMS at random without thinking or deciding in advance what is going to happen: 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. \