average
- a quantity, rating, or the like that represents or approximates an arithmetic mean: Her golf average is in the 90s. My average in science has gone from B to C this semester.
- a typical amount, rate, degree, etc.; norm.
- Statistics. arithmetic mean.
- Mathematics. a quantity intermediate to a set of quantities.
- Commerce.
- a charge paid by the master of a ship for such services as pilotage or towage.
- an expense, partial loss, or damage to a ship or cargo.
- the incidence of such an expense or loss to the owners or their insurers.
- an equitable apportionment among all the interested parties of such an expense or loss.Compare general average, particular average.
- of or relating to an average; estimated by average; forming an average: The average rainfall there is 180 inches.
- typical; common; ordinary: The average secretary couldn't handle such a workload. His grades were nothing special, only average.
- to find an average value for (a variable quantity); reduce to a mean: We averaged the price of milk in five neighborhood stores.
- (of a variable quantity) to have as its arithmetic mean: Wheat averages 56 pounds to a bushel.
- to do or have on the average: He averages seven hours of sleep a night.
- to have or show an average: to average as expected.
- average down, to purchase more of a security or commodity at a lower price to reduce the average cost of one's holdings.
- average out,
- to come out of a security or commodity transaction with a profit or without a loss.
- to reach an average or other figure: His taxes should average out to about a fifth of his income.
- average up, to purchase more of a security or commodity at a higher price to take advantage of a contemplated further rise in prices.
- on the/an average, usually; typically: She can read 50 pages an hour, on the average.
Origin of average
Related Words for average
ordinary, regular, moderate, mediocre, median, standard, medium, general, mainstream, fair, familiar, plastic, common, middling, intermediate, humdrum, commonplace, garden, boilerplate, nowhereExamples from the Web for average
Contemporary Examples of average
Well over a thousand holes in, I average less than four strokes per hole.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern ArtAlec Kubas-Meyer
January 2, 2015
On average, the vaccine has an efficacy of about 60 percent.
Average age ranges from 45 to 65, with her youngest client at 18 and the oldest in her 80s.
Ramos was 38—nearly two decades older than the average recruit.
All because Murthy believes that gun violence, which kills an average of 86 Americans every day, is a public health issue.
Historical Examples of average
The men are taller than the average, and the women, relatively, taller than the men.
I guess I could do it and get away with it as well as the average.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
They average about the same as they do in anything else, mostly good, I think.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
He's too blamed comprehensive for the average boy of my age.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
If he truly was the average age of the rest of the class there was nothing for him to be angry about.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
average
- the typical or normal amount, quality, degree, etcabove average in intelligence
- Also called: arithmetic mean the result obtained by adding the numbers or quantities in a set and dividing the total by the number of members in the setthe average of 3, 4, and 8 is 5
- (of a continuously variable ratio, such as speed) the quotient of the differences between the initial and final values of the two quantities that make up the ratiohis average over the journey was 30 miles per hour
- maritime law
- a loss incurred or damage suffered by a ship or its cargo at sea
- the equitable apportionment of such loss among the interested parties
- (often plural) stock exchange a simple or weighted average of the prices of a selected group of securities computed in order to facilitate market comparisons
- on average, on the average or on an average usually; typicallyon average, he goes twice a week
- usual or typical
- mediocre or inferiorhis performance was only average
- constituting a numerical averagethe average age; an average speed
- approximately typical of a range of valuesthe average contents of a matchbox
- (tr) to obtain or estimate a numerical average of
- (tr) to assess the general quality of
- (tr) to perform or receive a typical number ofto average eight hours' work a day
- (tr) to divide up proportionatelythey averaged the profits among the staff
- (tr) to amount to or be on averagethe children averaged 15 years of age
- (intr) stock exchange to purchase additional securities in a holding whose price has fallen (average down) or risen (average up) in anticipation of a speculative profit after further increases in price
Word Origin for average
Word Origin and History for average
late 15c., "financial loss incurred through damage to goods in transit," from French avarie "damage to ship," and Italian avaria; a word from 12c. Mediterranean maritime trade (cf. Spanish averia; other Germanic forms, Dutch avarij, German haferei, etc., also are from Romanic languages), of uncertain origin. Sometimes traced to Arabic 'arwariya "damaged merchandise," but this might as easily be a borrowing of the word from the Franks. Meaning shifted to "equal sharing of such loss by the interested parties." Transferred sense of "statement of a medial estimate" is first recorded 1735. The mathematical extension is from 1755.
1770; see average (n.).
1769, from average (n.). Related: Averaged; averaging.
average
(ăv′ər-ĭj, ăv′rĭj)- A number that typifies a set of numbers of which it is a function.
- arithmetic mean
- An intermediate level or degree.
- Of, relating to, or constituting an average.
- Being intermediate between extremes, as on a scale.
- To calculate the average of.
- To do or have an average of.
- To distribute proportionately, as over a period of time.
average
- A number, especially the arithmetic mean, that is derived from and considered typical or representative of a set of numbers. Compare arithmetic mean median mode.