adjective · academic
arbitrary
UK/ˈɑː.bɪ.trər.i/US/ˈɑr.bə.trer.i/AR·bi·tra·ry
chosen or done without a clear reason or system
Examples
“The sampling date seemed arbitrary, so some students questioned the study's fairness.”
“Avoid making arbitrary claims in Task 2; support every point with evidence.”
“The committee's decision appeared arbitrary because no criteria were explained.”
Band 8 sentence
“Many policy critiques accuse governments of imposing arbitrary restrictions rather than basing measures on robust evidence.”
Collocations
- arbitrary decision
- chosen arbitrarily
- arbitrary rule
Word family
Common mistakes
random→arbitrary
tùy ý (dịch word-by-word sang 'at will')→arbitrary
Say it for a higher band
5random→6without reason→7+arbitrary
Synonyms
capricious
random
Easily confused
random
“The winners of the study were chosen at random to avoid bias.”
capricious
“The manager's capricious behaviour made the team feel insecure.”
Related words
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In Sublist 10
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