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

Games of chance are considered humanity’s earliest structured engagement with the idea of randomness, the intellectual precursor to probabilistic thinking. —Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 14 Apr. 2026

But given injuries and the general randomness of middle relief, the Tigers’ approach makes sense. —Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2026

What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate, and the joy and profound human experience of being alive. —Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2026

Madden expected that, like young children that struggle to understand randomness, the earliest civilizations would have viewed every event as following from some predictable force. —Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 2 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1803, in the meaning defined above