aleatory

From Latin āleātōrius, from āleātor (“dice-player”), from ālea (“a die”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.lɪ.ə.tə.ɹi/, /ˈæ.lɪ.ə.tə.ɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.lɪ.ə.tɔ.ɹi/, /ˈeɪ.lɪ.ə.tɔ.ɹi/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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aleatory (not comparable)

1. Depending on the throw of a die; random, arising by chance.

   Synonyms: random, stochastic

   • 1887 October 8, Robert Louis Stevenson, letter to Edmund Goose:

     Soon the snow will close on us; we are here some twenty miles - twenty-seven, they say, but this I profoundly disbelieve - in the woods; communication by letter is slow and (let me be consistent) aleatory; by telegram is as near as may be impossible.

   • 1910, Israel Zangwill, The Grey Wig:

     Malicious Fate, too, they felt, would even crown with the grand prix the number they would have chosen. But for the prospective draw for the wig—which reintroduced the aleatory—life would scarcely have been bearable.

   • 1922, G. K. Chesterton, What I saw in America:

     There is no particular reason why even the gregarious Americans should so throng the portals of a perfectly obscure steerage passenger like young Chuzzlewit. There was every reason why they should throng the portals of the author of Pickwick and Oliver Twist. And no doubt they did. If I may be permitted the aleatory image, you bet they did.

2. (art, music) Produced with an element of chance (aleatoricism).

• aleatoric
• aleatoricism