adj · neutral
random
/ˈrændəm/RAN·dom
Band 5-6speakingtask1task2
happening or chosen without a particular plan or pattern
Examples
“We selected a random sample of 300 households for the survey.”
“He picked the ticket at random and won a prize.”
“There was a random mix of ages in the class.”
Band 8 sentence
“The survey used a random sample of residents to make the findings more representative.”
Collocations
- a random sample
- at random
- randomly selected / chosen
Word family
random adjrandomly advrandomness n
Common mistakes
He chose the students random.→He chose the students at random.
in random→at random
a randomly sample→a random sample
Say it for a higher band
5occasional→6irregular→7+random
Synonyms
haphazard
arbitrary
Easily confused
arbitrary
“The committee's selection seemed arbitrary and many people complained.”
Related words
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In -dom
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