normal

¹

[ nawr-muhl ]

adjective

1. conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.
2. serving to establish a standard.
3. Psychology.
   1. approximately average in any psychological trait, as intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment.
   2. free from any mental disorder; sane.
4. Biology, Medicine/Medical.
   1. free from any infection or other form of disease or malformation, or from experimental therapy or manipulation.
   2. of natural occurrence.
5. Mathematics.
   1. being at right angles, as a line; perpendicular.
   2. of the nature of or relating to a mathematical normal.
   3. (of an orthogonal system of real functions) defined so that the integral of the square of the absolute value of any function is 1.
   4. (of a topological space) having the property that corresponding to every pair of disjoint closed sets are two disjoint open sets, each containing one of the closed sets.
   5. (of a set) having the property that the same set results when all the elements of the set are operated on consistently on the left and consistently on the right by any element of the set; invariant.
6. Chemistry.
   1. (of a solution) containing one equivalent weight of the constituent in question in one liter of solution.
   2. relating to an aliphatic hydrocarbon having a straight unbranched carbon chain, each carbon atom of which is joined to no more than two other carbon atoms.
   3. of or relating to a neutral salt in which any replaceable hydroxyl groups or hydrogen atoms have been replaced by other groups or atoms, as sodium sulfate, Na 2 SO 4 .

noun

1. the standard or the common type.
2. the usual state, amount, level, etc., especially the average or mean:

   Production may fall below normal.

3. Mathematics.
   1. a perpendicular line or plane, especially one perpendicular to a tangent line of a curve, or a tangent plane of a surface, at the point of contact.
   2. the portion of this perpendicular line included between its point of contact with the curve and the x- axis.

Normal

²

[ nawr-muhl ]

noun

1. a city in central Illinois.

normal

/ ˈnɔːməl; nɔːˈmælɪtɪ /

adjective

1. usual; regular; common; typical

   the normal level

   the normal way of doing it

2. constituting a standard

   if we take this as normal

3. psychol
   1. being within certain limits of intelligence, educational success or ability, etc
   2. conforming to the conventions of one's group
4. biology med (of laboratory animals) maintained in a natural state for purposes of comparison with animals treated with drugs, etc
5. chem (of a solution) containing a number of grams equal to the equivalent weight of the solute in each litre of solvent N
6. chem denoting a straight-chain hydrocarbon: a normal alkane . Prefix: n-, e.g. n- octane
7. See perpendicular
   geometry another word for perpendicular

noun

1. the usual, average, or typical state, degree, form, etc
2. anything that is normal
3. geometry a line or plane perpendicular to another line or plane or to the tangent of a curved line or plane at the point of contact

Derived Forms

• normality, noun

Other Words From

• nor·mal·i·ty [nawr-, mal, -i-tee] noun plural normalities
• nor·mal·ness noun
• an·ti·nor·mal adjective
• half-nor·mal adjective
• hy·per·nor·mal adjective
• non·nor·mal adjective
• o·ver·nor·mal adjective
• qua·si-nor·mal adjective
• qua·si-nor·mal·ly adverb
• sem·i·nor·mal adjective
• sem·i·nor·mal·ly adverb
• un·nor·mal adjective
• un·nor·mal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of normal¹

First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin normālis “made according to a carpenter's square,” equivalent to norm(a) ( norm ) + -ālis adjective suffix; -al ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of normal¹

C16: from Latin normālis conforming to the carpenter's square, from norma norm

Example Sentences

In more normal times, people already struggled to take time off from work, polling machines broke down, and it was hard for many to even get to the polls.

From Popular-Science

Allowing the flow of water through coastal areas to return to normal seems key.

From Science News For Students

The crowded bar scene is likely one of the last things that will go “back to normal” after the pandemic.

From Fortune

Everyone wants to know what the new normal will be like for everything.

From Fortune

During this time, commuters couldn’t take their normal routes—they were forced to use other subway stops to get to work.

From Fortune

Something like fluoride, which is too small for normal filters, yanks away that feeling of agency.

From The Daily Beast

Carlisle writes that the Air Force would want a crew ratio of 10 to one for each drone orbit during normal everyday operations.

From The Daily Beast

He appears only normal, even in video footage from just two minutes before the shooting.

From The Daily Beast

The flight path remained close to the Indonesian archipelago, well within what is the normal reach of air traffic control radar.

From The Daily Beast

Six months of sterility results, after which normal fertility returns.

From The Daily Beast

In the early stages of chronic nephritis, when diagnosis is difficult, it is usually normal.

From Project Gutenberg

Walls End Castle, when the party broke up, returned to its normal state.

From Project Gutenberg

No trait is better marked in the normal child than the impulse to subject others to his own disciplinary system.

From Project Gutenberg

It is often present in the respiratory tract under normal conditions.

From Project Gutenberg

Then, inexplicably, he shifted to the other side that the old, the normal Tom presented generously to the new.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• natural
• orderly
• ordinary
• regular
• routine
• traditional
• typical