Arbitrary

How to spell arbitrary

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce arbitrary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does arbitrary mean?

1. adjectiveBased on personal whim or random choice rather than on reason, system, or fairness.

Arbitrary in a sentence

• The committee set an arbitrary deadline with no real justification.

• Staff complained that the new dress code felt arbitrary and unfair.

Where does arbitrary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin arbitrarius, meaning 'depending on the will or judgement of an arbiter', which was built on arbiter, a word for a judge, umpire, or eyewitness who settles a dispute. The literal sense pictured someone who 'goes to see' a matter and then decides it as he pleases, so the idea of a free, unchecked decision was baked in from the start. English took the word in during the late 1400s, at first meaning simply 'decided by personal discretion', and only later did it pick up the modern flavour of 'random, capricious, or based on whim rather than reason'. The same arbiter root still sits openly inside 'arbitrate' and 'arbitration', the legal process of having a neutral judge resolve a quarrel. For spelling, it helps to remember the buried 'arbiter' inside the word: keep the t and the r together (arbit-rary), and note the tricky unstressed -ary ending that the voice glides over.

How the word is built

• arbitr- (from Latin arbiter: a judge or witness)
• -ary (adjective suffix: relating to)