mediocrity

[ mee-dee-ok-ri-tee ]

/ ˌmi diˈɒk rɪ ti /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR mediocrity ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural me·di·oc·ri·ties.

the state or quality of being mediocre.

mediocre ability or accomplishment.

Words nearby mediocrity

medio-, mediocarpal, mediocracy, mediocre, mediocris, mediocrity, mediodorsal, mediolateral, medionecrosis, mediotarsal, mediotarsal amputation

Origin of mediocrity

1400–50; late Middle English mediocrite < Middle French mediocrite < Latin mediocritāt- (stem of mediocritās) a middle state, moderation. See mediocre, -ity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mediocrity

If the point was to create a paean to mediocrity, then Linklater has made maybe the definitive work on the subject.
Black 'Boyhood' Is Always Black First, Boy Later|Teo Bugbee|August 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Does the mediocrity of the job market mean that America no longer needs people who deal with abstractions?
Richard Hofstadter and America’s New Wave of Anti-Intellectualism|David Masciotra|March 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Both the Giants and the Jets descended into mediocrity, a situation epitomized by the “Miracle In The Meadowlands” in 1978.
New York City Is the Storied Football Capital of the USA|Ben Jacobs|January 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
While the Giants receded into two decades of mediocrity, the Jets took over New York.
New York City Is the Storied Football Capital of the USA|Ben Jacobs|January 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST

He wrote poems as a high school student on the side, but was never too serious, for fear of failure or mediocrity.
Why Billy Collins Is America’s Most Popular Poet|Austen Rosenfeld|October 22, 2013|DAILY BEAST
A night of mediocrity now brooded over the marshy fens of Holland.
Vondel's Lucifer|Joost van den Vondel
Everything that ventures forth beyond the protection of the grateful shadow of mediocrity has something startling about it.
The Country Doctor|Honore de Balzac
Mediocrity becomes moral from a necessity which it has the impudence to call virtue.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12)|Robert G. Ingersoll
Democracy, they tell us, is afflicted by mediocrity and by sterility.
The Art of Public Speaking|Dale Carnagey (AKA Dale Carnegie) and J. Berg Esenwein
We make no progress towards the higher arts, except in greater quantities of mediocrity.
Malbone|Thomas Wentworth Higginson

British Dictionary definitions for mediocrity

mediocrity

/ (ˌmiːdɪˈɒkrɪtɪ, ˌmɛd-) /

noun plural -ties

the state or quality of being mediocre

a mediocre person or thing

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

mediocrity

noun, plural me·di·oc·ri·ties.

Words related to mediocrity

Words nearby mediocrity

Origin of mediocrity

Examples from the Web for mediocrity

British Dictionary definitions for mediocrity

noun plural -ties