What's the difference between arbitrary and reasonable?

Arbitrary


Definition:

  • (a.) Depending on will or discretion; not governed by any fixed rules; as, an arbitrary decision; an arbitrary punishment.
  • (a.) Exercised according to one's own will or caprice, and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power.
  • (a.) Despotic; absolute in power; bound by no law; harsh and unforbearing; tyrannical; as, an arbitrary prince or government.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This developed concept of "valve only" energy loss has the potential of standardising the findings of different research groups by removing the arbitrary selection of measurement points from reported results.
  • (2) 'Vertical' sections are plane sections longitudinal to a fixed (but arbitrary) axial direction.
  • (3) In the microtitre plate assay only 45% of specific IgE was immobilized and it was necessary to express the results in arbitrary units.
  • (4) It is concluded that renin levels in hypertension are influenced by several factors and that any attempt to subdivide patients into renin subgroups is therefore arbitrary.
  • (5) In his letter Abd El Fattah highlights the arbitrary nature of many of their detentions, the torture to which thousands have probably been subjected – and the apathy towards, and often enthusiasm for, such malpractice among the public.
  • (6) Although the diagnosis of hyperlipidemia is somewhat arbitrary, in that the upper limits of normal are not universally agreed upon, it is clear that the risk of atherosclerosis increases with plasma cholesterol concentration; it may also increase in hyperglyceridemia.
  • (7) Several arbitrary definitions have been used, some related to visual estimates of coronary stenosis and others to quantitative angiographic techniques.
  • (8) More than 60% of the residents' working hours in this program exceeded the arbitrary 80-hour limit, emphasizing the challenge of complying with the imposition of maximum work hours.
  • (9) Practically, serially accumulated images with sequentially prolonged accumulation times are weighted by two arbitrary functions.
  • (10) While somewhat arbitrary, the number of drug-affected newborns, adjusted for underreporting, was about 38,000 (95% confidence interval: 30,000-45,000).
  • (11) The almost-Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979 [...] I cannot imagine a more "indiscriminate" and "arbitrary invasion" than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.
  • (12) For the chain with arbitrary values of characteristic times of individual stages the maximal possible degree of the chain stability and corresponding value of the feedback coefficient are estimated.
  • (13) The cellular total polyamine (spermidine + spermine) concentration on the slides varied between 4 and 15 nmol per mg protein (MCF-7 cells) and 5 and 26 nmol per mg protein (HeLa cells) and the corresponding microfluorometric results between 60 and 115 arbitrary units (MCF-7 cells) and 80 and 160 arbitrary units (HeLa cells).
  • (14) A general purpose computer program, PROPAGATE, has been written to allow addition, deletion, and modification of the beam line elements used in the calculation and to provide a convenient means of repeating such calculations for arbitrary beam lines.
  • (15) The current government should learn from past mistakes and not expand the programme too quickly in pursuit of arbitrary targets, and, above all else, not overclaim for free schools.
  • (16) The device consists of a motor-driven shaft which moves the record past a fixed cursor, and an electronic counter which records the movements of the shaft, thereby providing a cumulative tally of the distance of the current position of the cursor from some arbitrary origin on the record.
  • (17) Analysis of total radioligand binding was found to be a better procedure because it eliminates the use of an arbitrary concentration of unlabelled ligand and improves the accuracy of the assay.
  • (18) Water ferns (Salviniaceae) and seed ferns (Pteridospermae) are known as the arbitrary type of Lycopsida which did not reach the state of shot structure of the body.
  • (19) Methods are reviewed for estimating the transverse relaxation time T2 and the pseudodensity (PD) from spin-echo measurements acquired at an arbitrary set of echo times [TEi].
  • (20) The response of the resting (fully formed) hair follicle to irradiation was studied using an arbitrary 6 unit scale of epilation as an endpoint.

Reasonable


Definition:

  • (n.) Having the faculty of reason; endued with reason; rational; as, a reasonable being.
  • (n.) Governed by reason; being under the influence of reason; thinking, speaking, or acting rationally, or according to the dictates of reason; agreeable to reason; just; rational; as, the measure must satisfy all reasonable men.
  • (n.) Not excessive or immoderate; within due limits; proper; as, a reasonable demand, amount, price.
  • (adv.) Reasonably; tolerably.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For this reason, these observations should not be disregarded.
  • (2) Not only do they give employers no reason to turn them into proper jobs, but mini-jobs offer workers little incentive to work more because then they would have to pay tax.
  • (3) The results of our microscopic model confirm that the continuum hypothesis used in our previous macroscopic model is reasonable.
  • (4) The use of glucagon in double-contrast studies of the colon has been recommended for various reasons, one of which is to facilitate reflux of barium into the terminal ileum.
  • (5) The reason for the rise in Android's market share on both sides of the Atlantic is the increased number of devices that use the software.
  • (6) Reasonably good agreement is seen between theoretical apparent rate-vesicle concentration relationships and those measured experimentally.
  • (7) Splenectomy had been performed for traumatic, hematologic or immunologic reasons.
  • (8) The most common reasons cited for relapse included craving, social situations, stress, and nervousness.
  • (9) "We do not yet live in a society where the police or any other officers of the law are entitled to detain people without reasonable justification and demand their papers," Gardiner wrote.
  • (10) Even if it were not the case that police use a variety of tricks to keep recorded crime figures low, this data would still represent an almost meaningless measure of the extent of crime in society, for the simple reason that a huge proportion of crimes (of almost all sorts) have always gone unreported.
  • (11) The mechanism by which gp55 causes increased erythroblastosis and ultimately leukaemia is unknown, but a reasonable suggestion is that gp55 can mimic the action of erythropoietin by binding to its receptor (Epo-R), thereby triggering prolonged proliferation of erythroid cells.
  • (12) Both Types I and II collagen are important constituents of the affected tissues, and thus defective collagens are reasonable candidates for the primary abnormality in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS).
  • (13) Reasons for non-acceptance do not indicate any major difficulties in the employment of such staff in general practice, at least as far as the patients are concerned.
  • (14) For that reason we determine basal serum pepsinogen I (PG I) levels in 25 ulcerous patients and 75% of their offspring and to a control group matched by age and sex.
  • (15) October 23, 2013 3.55pm BST Another reason to be concerned about the global economy - Canada's central bank has slashed its economic forecasts for the US.
  • (16) A series of 241 patients with subphrenic abscess was analysed to seek reasons for the continuing mortality.
  • (17) Still, cynics might say they can identify at least one reason it all might fail: namely form.
  • (18) Child age was negatively correlated with mother's use of commands, reasoning, threats, and bribes, and positively correlated with maternal nondirectives, servings, and child compliance.
  • (19) The reason I liked them was because they were a band, and my dad had a band.
  • (20) "Speed is not the main reason for building the new railway.