Just vs Arbitrary - What's the difference?
just | arbitrary |
Factually ; right, correct; proper.
Morally ; upright; righteous, equitable.
* Shakespeare
Only, simply, merely.
* , chapter=8
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=
, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (sentence adverb) (Used to reduce the force of an imperative); simply.
(speech act) (Used to convey a less serious or formal tone)
(speech act) (Used to show humility).
(degree) absolutely, positively
Moments ago, recently.
* , chapter=8
, title= By a narrow margin; closely; nearly.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=14 Exactly, perfectly.
Precisely.
* (John Dryden)
* Sir Philip Sidney
* (William Shakespeare)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (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.
As adjectives the difference between just and arbitrary
is that just is factually fair; right, correct; proper while arbitrary is based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.As nouns the difference between just and arbitrary
is that just is a joust, tournament while arbitrary is anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.As an adverb just
is only, simply, merely.As a verb just
is to joust, fight a tournament.just
English
(wikipedia just)Etymology 1
From (etyl) juste, from (etyl) juste, from (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch & Scottish juist, French juste etc.Adjective
- It is a just assessment of the facts.
- It looks like a just solution at first glance.
- We know your grace to be a man / Just and upright.
Synonyms
* fair * upright * righteous * equitableAntonyms
* unjustDerived terms
* justly * justnessAdverb
(-)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.}}
The new masters and commanders, passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
Sam Leith
Where the profound meets the profane, passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Philander went into the next room
citation, passage=Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.}}
- And having just enough, not covet more.
- The god Pan guided my hand just to the heart of the beast.
- To-night, at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one.
Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
Synonyms
* merely, simply * barely, hardly, scarcelyDerived terms
* just folksEtymology 2
Variation of joust, presumably ultimately from (etyl) iuxta 'near, besides'.References
* *Statistics
*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
)