Arbitrary vs Bit - What's the difference?
arbitrary | bit |
(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.
A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to reins to direct the animal.
A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to bore holes.
(dated, British) A coin of a specified value. (Also used for a nine-pence coin in the British Caribbean)
(US) An eighth of a dollar. Note that there is no coin minted worth 12.5 cents. (When this term first came into use, the Spanish 8 reales coin was widely used as a dollar equivalent, and thus the 1 real coin was equivalent to 12.5 cents.)
(historical, US) In the southern and southwestern states, a small silver coin (such as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12½ cents; also, the sum of 12½ cents.
A small amount of something.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=15 (informal) Specifically , a small amount of time.
A portion of something.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree.
* T. Hook
(slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
*
*
*
*
(An excerpt of material) An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.
The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.
The cutting iron of a plane.
To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).
(bite)
, bitten
(label) bitten.
(label) Having been bitten.
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*
*
1946] First used in print 1948 by (Claude Shannon). Compare (byte) and (nybble).
(mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
(computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
(information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
(information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
* {{quote-web, date = 2011-05-17
, author = Lisa Grossman
, title = Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language
, site = Wired Science
, url = http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/universal-entropy/
, accessdate = 2012-09-26}}
As an adjective 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.As a verb bit is
to beat (to strike or pound repeatedly).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
* *bit
English
(wikipedia bit)Etymology 1
From (etyl) bita and bite - all from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’}}
Catherine Clabby
Focus on Everything, passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
- Am I bored? Not a bit of it!
- My young companion was a bit of a poet.
- (Knight)
- (Knight)
Synonyms
* (coin) coin, piece * (small piece) morsel (of food), piece, scrap * (portion) portion, share, segment * (horse equipment) snaffle, pelham, kimberwickeDerived terms
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Adverb
(-)- That's a bit too sweet.
Verb
(bitt)Etymology 2
See biteVerb
(head)- Your dog bit me!
- I have been bit by your dog!
Adjective
(-)Etymology 3
Coined by (John Tukey) in 1946 as an abbreviation of (binary digit), probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”.[http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/98/q2/0602-honorary.html][http://www.thocp.net/timeline/1944.htmNoun
(en noun)- status bits''' on IRC; permission '''bits in a file system
- The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure.
But strangely, the difference in entropy between the original, ordered text and the randomly scrambled text was constant across languages. This difference is a way to measure the amount of information encoded in word order, Montemurro says. The amount of information lost when they scrambled the text was about 3.5 bits per word.