Dowolni

Dowolni is the masculine personal plural form of the Polish adjective dowolny, meaning arbitrary, any, or free to choose. It describes nouns of masculine personal gender in plural and indicates that the individuals are not specified. The corresponding feminine and neuter plural is dowolne, used with feminine or neuter nouns such as dowolne osoby or dowolne miejsca.

In Polish, dowolny is an adjective and its forms decline to agree with the noun they modify. The form dowolni is used with masculine personal plural nouns, while dowolne is used with feminine or neuter plural nouns. This distinction mirrors standard Polish adjective agreement and helps convey whether the subject is a specific group or an unspecified, arbitrary one.

Usage and meaning: In everyday language, dowolni is used to indicate no particular selection among a group. For example, “dowolni klienci” means any clients, and “dowolne decyzje” means any decisions, without implying a constraint beyond being within a defined set. In technical contexts, such as mathematics or logic, dowolni is used to denote an arbitrarily chosen element of a set; phrases like “dla dowolnego x ∈ X” translate to “for any x in X.”

Etymology and related terms: The word comes from dowolny, with the prefix do- and the root wolny (free). Related terms include dowolnie (arbitrarily) and jakikolwiek or ktokolwiek, which convey similar notions of non-specific choice.

See also: dowolny, jakikolwiek, ktokolwiek, dowolnie.