Another word for arbitrary
a-z
Adjective
Determined or marked by whim or caprice rather than reason
- Characterized by, arising from, or subject to whimsy:
- Playful or fanciful, especially in a humorous way:
- Characterized by, arising from, or subject to caprice; impulsive or unpredictable:
See also:Based on individual judgment or discretion
- Dependent on or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world:
- Based on a given person's experience, understanding, and feelings; personal or individual:
- Not caused by external stimuli.
- Of or relating to a particular person; private:
- Done, made, or performed in person:
- Done to or for or directed toward a particular person:
- Of, relating to, or dependent on judgment:
- Inclined to make judgments, especially moral or personal ones:
- Left to or regulated by one's own discretion or judgment.
- Available for use as needed or desired:
Having and exercising complete political power and control
- Characterized by tyranny; despotic.
- Of or relating to a tyrant or tyranny:
- Characteristic of a tyrant or tyranny; despotic and oppressive:
- Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed:
- A practitioner or supporter of such a government.
- Having complete political power or control; autocratic
- Tending to tell others what to do in an presumptuous manner.
- Of, relating to, or characteristic of a dictator or dictatorship; autocratic.
- of or like a despot; autocratic; tyrannical
- Relating to or being an autocrat.
- Tending to impose one's will on others in an insistent or arrogant manner; domineering.
- Of, pertaining to, or marked by autarchy; autocratic.
- Alternative form of absolutist.[First attested in the mid 19th century.]
- Unqualified in extent or degree; total:
- Not limited by restrictions or exceptions:
- Being fully such; utter:
© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Another word for arbitrary
Modifier
Capricious; said of people
- Haughty; pretentious.
- Not endowed with reason.
- Affected by loss of usual or normal mental clarity; incoherent, as from shock.
- Marked by a lack of accord with reason or sound judgment:
- Not governed by or based on reason:
- Exceeding reasonable limits; immoderate:
- Characterized by, arising from, or subject to whimsy:
- Playful or fanciful, especially in a humorous way:
- Feeling or showing haughty disdain.
- Holding stubbornly and often unreasonably to one's own opinions.
- Marked by a lack of responsibility:
- Lacking a sense of responsibility; unreliable or untrustworthy.
- Not liable to be called to account by a higher authority.
- Capriciously stubborn or eccentric; perverse.
- Not regular or predictable; erratic:
- Lacking in correct logical relation; contradictory:
- Not in agreement or harmony; incompatible:
- Inclined to act on impulse rather than thought.
- Motivated by or resulting from impulse:
- Having force or power to impel or incite; forceful.
- Having no fixed or regular course; wandering:
- Lacking consistency, regularity, or uniformity:
- Deviating from the customary course in conduct or opinion; eccentric:
- Without preparation or forethought; extemporaneously:
- Performed or expressed without preparation or forethought:
- Deviating from what is desired, expected, or required, especially in being disobedient or in gratifying one's own inclinations:
- Difficult or impossible to manage, control, or keep in order:
- Going somewhere not intended or desired:
- Lacking or showing a lack of judgment or discretion; unwise.
- Unworthy of serious attention; trivial:
- Inappropriately silly:
- determined to advance one's own personality or views
- Characterized by, arising from, or subject to caprice; impulsive or unpredictable:
- Said or done on purpose; deliberate:
- Obstinately bent on having one's own way:
Antonyms:Without adequate determining principle: said of actions or ideas
- Only partly baked.
- Insufficiently thought out; ill-conceived:
- Exhibiting a lack of good judgment or common sense:
- Left to or regulated by one's own discretion or judgment.
- Available for use as needed or desired:
- Not regular or predictable; erratic:
- Lacking in correct logical relation; contradictory:
- Not in agreement or harmony; incompatible:
- Not known or established; questionable:
- Not determined; undecided:
- Not having sure knowledge:
- Left to choice; not compulsory or automatic.
- Markedly unusual or abnormal; strange:
- Relating to or being a freak:
- Capricious or whimsical.
- Created in the fancy; imaginary or unreal:
- Tending to indulge in fancy:
- Showing invention or whimsy in design; imaginative.
- Characterized by, arising from, or subject to whimsy:
- Playful or fanciful, especially in a humorous way:
- Of, affecting, or being on or near the surface:
- Concerned with or comprehending only what is apparent or obvious; shallow:
- Apparent rather than actual or substantial:
- Impossible to account for; inexplicable:
- Free from accountability; not responsible:
- Without a motive.
- Not endowed with reason.
- Affected by loss of usual or normal mental clarity; incoherent, as from shock.
- Marked by a lack of accord with reason or sound judgment:
- Not planned or thought out in advance:
- Lasting, used, serving, or enjoyed for a limited time.
- One that serves for a limited time:
- The unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause.
- A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; luck:
- The likelihood of something happening; possibility or probability:
- Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective:
- Of or relating to a type of circumstance or event that is described by a probability distribution.
- Of or relating to an event in which all outcomes are equally likely, as in the testing of a blood sample for the presence of a substance.
- Characterized by, arising from, or subject to caprice; impulsive or unpredictable:
- Difficult to foretell or foresee:
- Something difficult or impossible to foretell or foresee.
- Not governed by or based on reason:
- Exceeding reasonable limits; immoderate:
- Not adhering to the principles of science.
- Not knowledgeable about science or the scientific method.
- Dependent on or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world:
- Based on a given person's experience, understanding, and feelings; personal or individual:
- Not caused by external stimuli.
Antonyms:Despotic
- Relating to, characteristic of, or resulting from dogma.
- Asserting or insisting upon ideas or principles, especially when unproven or unexamined, in an imperious or arrogant manner:
- Characterized by such assertion, often with an unconsidered rejection of criticism:
- Of or relating to a tyrant or tyranny:
- Characteristic of a tyrant or tyranny; despotic and oppressive:
- Tending to tell others what to do in an presumptuous manner.
- Of, relating to, or characteristic of a dictator or dictatorship; autocratic.
- Arrogantly domineering or overbearing.
- Urgent; pressing:
- Regal; imperial.
© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.