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Random vs Cycle - What's the difference?

random | cycle |

As nouns the difference between random and cycle

is that random is a roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance while cycle is an interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.

As an adjective random

is having unpredictable outcomes and, in the ideal case, all outcomes equally probable; resulting from such selection; lacking statistical correlation.

As a verb cycle is

to ride a bicycle or other cycle.

random

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
  • * (1591-1674)
  • *:Counsels, when they fly / At random , sometimes hit most happily.
  • *Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • *:O, many a shaft, at random sent, / Finds mark the archer little meant!
  • (label) Speed, full speed; impetuosity, force.
  • *:
  • *:they were messagers vnto kyng Ban & Bors sent from kynge Arthur / therfor said the viij knyghtes ye shalle dye or be prysoners / for we ben knyghtes of kyng Claudas And therwith two of them dressid theire sperys / and Vlfyus and Brastias dressid theire speres and ranne to gyder with grete raundon
  • *(Edward Hall) (1497-1547)
  • *:For courageously the two kings newly fought with great random and force.
  • *1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, page 144:
  • *:Fortie yards will they shoot levell, or very neare the marke, and 120 is their best at Random .
  • :
  • :
  • (label) The direction of a rake-vein.
  • :(Raymond)
  • Synonyms

    * force, momentum, speed, velocity * (unimportant person) nobody, nonentity

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having unpredictable outcomes and, in the ideal case, all outcomes equally probable; resulting from such selection; lacking statistical correlation.
  • The flip of a fair coin is purely random .
    The newspaper conducted a random sample of five hundred American teenagers.
    The results of the field survey look random by several different measures.
  • * July 18 2012 , Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises [http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/]
  • Where the Joker preys on our fears of random , irrational acts of terror, Bane has an all-consuming, dictatorial agenda that’s more stable and permanent, a New World Order that’s been planned out with the precision of a military coup.
  • (mathematics) Of or relating to probability distribution.
  • A toss of loaded dice is still random , though biased.
  • (computing) Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection.
  • The rand function generates a random number from a seed.
  • (somewhat colloquial) Representative and undistinguished; typical and average; selected for no particular reason.
  • A random American off the street couldn't tell the difference.
  • (somewhat colloquial) Apropos of nothing; lacking context; unexpected; having apparent lack of plan, cause or reason.
  • That was a completely random comment.
    The teacher's bartending story was interesting, but random .
    The narrative takes a random course.
  • (colloquial) Characterized by or often saying random things; habitually using non sequiturs.
  • You're so random !

    Synonyms

    * (having unpredictable outcomes) * (of or relating to probability distribution) stochastic * (pseudorandom) pseudorandom * (representative and undistinguished) average, typical * (lacking context) arbitrary, unexpected, unplanned

    Derived terms

    * at random * non-random * pseudorandom * randomer * randomise, randomize * randomness * random number * randomly * randomology * randomosity

    See also

    * (Randomness)

    Anagrams

    *

    cycle

    English

    (wikipedia cycle)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
  • the cycle of the seasons, or of the year
  • * Burke
  • Wages to the medium of provision during the last bad cycle of twenty years.
  • A complete rotation of anything.
  • A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Legal highs: A new prescription , passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
  • The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
  • (music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.
  • A series of poems, songs or other works of art.
  • A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
  • the spin cycle
  • A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle; or, motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels, such as a motorbike, motorcycle, motorized tricycle, or motortrike.
  • (baseball) A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
  • (graph theory) A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
  • An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
  • (Milton)
    (Burke)
  • An age; a long period of time.
  • * Tennyson
  • Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
  • An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
  • * Evelyn
  • We present our gardeners with a complete cycle of what is requisite to be done throughout every month of the year.
  • (botany) One entire round in a circle or a spire.
  • a cycle or set of leaves
    (Gray)

    Usage notes

    * (aviation sense) One take-off and landing of an aircraft is a (term), referring to a (term) which places stresses on the fuselage. * (baseball sense) As in the example sentence, one is usually said to (term). However, other uses also occur, such as (term) and (term).

    Derived terms

    * cycle path * cyclic * acyclic

    Verb

    (cycl)
  • To ride a bicycle or other .
  • To go through a cycle or to put through a cycle.
  • (electronics) To turn power off and back on
  • Avoid cycling the device unnecessarily.
  • (ice hockey) To maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone by handling and passing the puck in a loop from the boards near the goal up the side boards and passing to back to the boards near the goal
  • They have their cycling game going tonight.

    Anagrams

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