randomness

noun

ran·​dom·​ness ˈran-dəm-nəs 

: the quality or state of being or seeming random (as in lacking or seeming to lack a definite plan, purpose, or pattern)

Many Western artists and writers have been inspired by the I Ching. … The composer John Cage used it as a way to generate randomness and chance in his compositions, giving them their distinctive and often remarkable qualities.

—Heinz Insu Fenkl

… the metaphor of a coin flip for randomness remains unquestioned. We use coin tosses to settle disputes and decide outcomes because we believe they are unbiased, with 50-50 odds. Yet recent research into coin flips has discovered that the laws of mechanics determine the outcome of coin tosses …

—David E. Adler

the randomness of life

Examples of randomness in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The randomness and unpredictability of existence, the mindless violence of it, necessitated myth. — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 17 July 2026

For me, the closest cinema has come capturing that randomness and unfairness is Jane Campion’s beautiful and meditative Bright Star, which tells the love story of Romantic poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne and of Keats’ death at 25 of tuberculosis. — Sarah Chihaya, Vulture, 16 July 2026

Thermodynamic computing would make use of thermodynamic processes, which distribute and dissipate energy and inevitably increase randomness at the microscopic scale. — Quanta Magazine, 15 July 2026

Progress has been frustratingly slow, but now a potential breakthrough result is pointing the way toward more rapid advances—and a clearer view of the still-hazy transition between randomness and structure. — Sam MacDonald, Scientific American, 15 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1803, in the meaning defined above