Arbitrary vs Onomatopoeia - What's the difference?
arbitrary | onomatopoeia |
(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.
(uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
* {{quote-book
, year= 1553
, year_published= 1909
, author= , (Desiderius Erasmus)
, by=
, title= Arte of Rhetorique
, url= http://books.google.com/books?id=6p0xbOGIz2MC&pg=PA173
, original=
, chapter=
, section=
, isbn=
, edition=
, publisher= Clarendon Press
, location= Oxford
, editor=
, volume=
, page=
, passage= A woorde making called of the Grecians Onomatapoia , is when wee make wordes of our owne minde, such as bee derived from the nature of things.
}}
(countable) A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".
(uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.
As nouns the difference between arbitrary and onomatopoeia
is that arbitrary is anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee while onomatopoeia is the property of a word of sounding like what it represents.As an adjective arbitrary
is based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.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
)