arbitrarily

English

Etymology

From arbitrary +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

arbitrarily (comparative more arbitrarily, superlative most arbitrarily)

1. In an arbitrary manner.

   Antonym: unarbitrarily

   The winner was chosen arbitrarily.

   • 1966 February, Robert Schrek, ““Hairy” Cells in Blood in Lymphoreticular Neoplastic Disease and “Flagellated” Cells of Normal Lymph Nodes”, in Blood, volume 27, number 2, page 199:

     Studies of the viable blood cells with phase contrast microscopy showed peculiar cells that had numerous short villi and were arbitrarily called “hairy cells.”

   • 1970 January 24, “Administration's Recommended Policy on Satellite Communication”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The number or classes or potential offerers of satellite services should not be [limited] arbitrarily.

2. To an arbitrary degree.

   an arbitrarily large number

Translations

in an arbitrary manner

• Catalan: arbitràriament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 任意地 (zh) (rènyì de)

• Czech: libovolně
• Danish: arbitrært, vilkårligt
• Finnish: mielivaltaisesti (fi)
• French: arbitrairement (fr)
• Galician: arbitrariamente
• German: beliebig (de)
• Greek: αυθαίρετα (el) (afthaíreta)
• Italian: arbitrariamente (it)
• Japanese: 任意に (ja) (にんいに, nin'i ni)
• Polish: arbitralnie
• Portuguese: arbitrariamente (pt)
• Romanian: arbitrar (ro), arbitraricește, în mod arbitrar
• Russian: произво́льно (ru) (proizvólʹno)
• Spanish: arbitrariamente (es), a dedo
• Swedish: godtyckligt (sv)

to an arbitrary degree

• Danish: vilkårlig, arbitrært
• Finnish: mielivaltaisen
• German: beliebig (de)