In mathematical terms, random refers to a quantity which is "randomly" picked from a distribution. In a sense, things are only random in reference to a distribu

In mathematical terms, random refers to a quantity which is "randomly" picked from a distribution. In a sense, things are only random in reference to a distribution. A "random number" in the lay sense is a "random number from a uniform probability distribution"; a uniform distribution being one where each element is equally likely. You might note there are still patterns in uniform distributions. e.g. Uniformly random integers are never not integers, and they also fit within a particular range: we have no way to pick random numbers uniformly between -infinity and infinity.