randomly

Everyday

1. Randomly means without a plan, pattern or reason, so that you cannot predict what will happen. tree →
2. Randomly means by chance, so that every choice has the same chance of being picked. tree →

In the lessons

Maths (probability): picking a counter randomly from a bag means every counter has an equal chance; dice and spinners give random results. Science: in a fair test you may choose samples randomly. Computing: games use random numbers. Everyday speech: «randomly» can mean unexpectedly («he randomly started singing»). Phrases: chosen randomly, randomly picked, at random.

Examples

• The teacher randomly picked a name from the hat. tree →
• A counter is taken randomly from the bag. tree →
• The birds flew randomly around the field. tree →
• The computer randomly shuffles the songs. tree →
• She randomly started laughing in the middle of the lesson. tree →
• The groups were chosen randomly to be fair. tree →

Note

Adverb from «random» (+ly). In maths, «randomly» means each outcome has an equal chance unless the question says otherwise: if a bag has 3 red and 1 blue counter, picking randomly gives red 3 times out of 4 on average. People are bad at being truly random — patterns creep in.