arbitrariness
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Noun
arbitrariness (usually uncountable, plural arbitrarinesses)
- The quality or state of being arbitrary; the extent to which something is arbitrary.
- 1998 spring, José María Rodríguez García, “Epos delendum est: The Subject of Carthage in Garcilaso’s ‘A Boscán desde “La Goleta”’”, in Hispanic Review, volume 66, number 2, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, , →ISSN, →OCLC, page 166:
- Passion, providence, and imitation are conventionally the respective ruling forces of these three processes. Yet to take them at face value, as an innocent reading of the poem might advise, would be to betray Garcilaso’s own efforts, in this sonnet and elsewhere, to expose the arbitrariness of grandiose idealist concepts such as Platonic love and providential history.
Synonyms
- arbitrarity (much less common)
Derived terms
Translations
the state of being arbitrary
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Further reading
- “arbitrariness”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “arbitrary”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “arbitrariness” (US) / “arbitrariness” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
- arbitrary in Britannica Dictionary
- “arbitrariness”, in Wordnik.
- “arbitrariness, arbitrarity”, in Google Books Ngram Viewer.