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Uncertain vs Arbitrary - What's the difference?

uncertain | arbitrary | Related terms |

Uncertain is a related term of arbitrary.


As adjectives the difference between uncertain and arbitrary

is that uncertain is not certain; unsure while arbitrary is (usually|of a decision) based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.

As a noun arbitrary is

anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.

uncertain

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not certain; unsure.
  • *(John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
  • *:Man, without the protection of a superior Being,is uncertain of everything that he hopes for.
  • Not known for certain; questionable.
  • :
  • Not yet determined; undecided.
  • Variable and subject to change.
  • Fitful or unsteady.
  • *
  • *:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
  • Unpredictable or capricious.
  • *Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • *:O woman! in our hours of ease, / Uncertain , coy, and hard to please!
  • Antonyms

    * certain

    Anagrams

    * *

    arbitrary

    English

    Adjective

    (arbitrariness) (en adjective)
  • (usually, of a decision) Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
  • 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.
  • Determined by impulse rather than reason; heavy-handed.
  • "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)
  • (mathematics) Any and all possible.
  • The equation is true for an arbitrary value of x.
  • Determined by independent arbiter.
  • 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)
  • Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.