Arbitrary vs Fixed - What's the difference?
arbitrary | fixed |
(usually, of a decision) Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
Determined by impulse rather than reason; heavy-handed.
(mathematics) Any and all possible.
Determined by independent arbiter.
Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.
(fix)
Not changing, not able to be changed, staying the same.
Stationary.
Attached; affixed
*
Chemically stable.
Supplied with what one needs.
(legal) Of sound, recorded on a permanent medium.
(dialectal, informal) Surgically rendered infertile (spayed, neutered or castrated).
Rigged; fraudulently prearranged.
As adjectives the difference between arbitrary and fixed
is that arbitrary is based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random while fixed is not changing, not able to be changed, staying the same.As a noun arbitrary
is anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.As a verb fixed is
past tense of fix.arbitrary
English
Adjective
(arbitrariness) (en adjective)- Benjamin Franklin's designation of "positive" and "negative" to different charges was arbitrary . In fact, electrons flow in the opposite direction to conventional current.
- The decision to use 18 years as the legal age of adulthood was arbitrary , as both age 17 and 19 were reasonable alternatives.
- "The Russian trials were Stalin's purges, with which he attempted to consolidate his power. Like most people in the West, I believed these show trials to be the arbitrary acts of a cruel dictator." (
Max Born, Letters to Einstein
)
- The equation is true for an arbitrary value of x.
- To secure food safety, there should first be a national standard to arbitrarily state what is wholesome and what is not; second, the final buyer should know exactly what he is purchasing. (
The World's Work ...: a history of our time
)
Noun
(arbitraries)External links
* *fixed
English
Verb
(head)Adjective
(en adjective)- fixed assets
- I work fixed''' hours for a '''fixed salary.
- Every religion has its own fixed ideas.
- ''He looked at me with a fixed glare.
- The closest affinities of the Jubulaceae are with the Lejeuneaceae. The two families share in common: (a ) elaters usually 1-spiral, trumpet-shaped and fixed to the capsule valves, distally
- She's nicely fixed after two divorce settlements.
- In the United States, recordings are only granted copyright protection when the sounds in the recording were fixed and first published on or after February 15, 1972.
- a fixed''' tomcat''; the ''she-cat'' has been '''fixed
