average (n.)

  1. a statistic describing the location of a distribution; it set the norm for American homes

    [ Syn: norm ]

  2. (sports) the ratio of successful performances to opportunities

  3. an intermediate scale value regarded as normal or usual; he is about average in height; the snowfall this month is below average'

    average (adj.)

  1. approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value; the average income in New England is below that of the nation; of average height for his age; the mean annual rainfall

    [ Syn: mean ]

  2. lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered; average people; the ordinary (or common) man in the street

    [ Syn: ordinary ]

  3. lacking exceptional quality or ability; a novel of average merit; only a fair performance of the sonata; in fair health; the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average; the performance was middling at best

    [ Syn: fair , mediocre , middling ]

  4. around the middle of a scale of evaluation; an orange of average size; intermediate capacity; medium bombers

    [ Syn: intermediate , medium ]

  5. relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a distribution; the modal age at which American novelists reach their peak is 30

    [ Syn: modal ]

  6. relating to or constituting the middle value of an ordered set of values (or the average of the middle two in a set with an even number of values); the median value of 17, 20, and 36 is 20; the median income for the year was $15, 000

    [ Syn: median ]

    average (v.)

  1. amount to or come to an average, without loss or gain; The number of hours I work per work averages out to 40

    [ Syn: average out ]

  2. achieve or reach on average; He averaged a C'

  3. compute the average of

    [ Syn: average out ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.