ordinary
of no special quality or interest; commonplace; unexceptional: One novel is brilliant, the other is decidedly ordinary; an ordinary person.
plain or undistinguished: ordinary clothes.
somewhat inferior or below average; mediocre.
Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. common, vulgar, or disreputable.
(of jurisdiction) immediate, as contrasted with something that is delegated.
(of officials) belonging to the regular staff or the fully recognized class.
the commonplace or average condition, degree, etc.: ability far above the ordinary.
something regular, customary, or usual.
Ecclesiastical.
an order or form for divine service, especially that for saying Mass.
the service of the Mass exclusive of the canon.
History/Historical. a member of the clergy appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death.
English Ecclesiastical Law. a bishop, archbishop, or other ecclesiastic or his deputy, in his capacity as an ex officio ecclesiastical authority.
(in some U.S. states) a judge of a court of probate.
British. (in a restaurant or inn) a complete meal in which all courses are included at one fixed price, as opposed to à la carte service.
a restaurant, public house, or dining room serving all guests and customers the same standard meal or fare.
Heraldry.
any of the simplest and commonest charges, usually having straight or broadly curved edges.
Idioms about ordinary
in ordinary, in regular service: a physician in ordinary to the king.
out of the ordinary,
exceptional; unusual: Having triplets is certainly out of the ordinary.
exceptionally good; unusually good: The food at this restaurant is truly out of the ordinary.
Origin of ordinary
1synonym study For ordinary
Other words for ordinary
Opposites for ordinary
Other words from ordinary
- or·di·nar·i·ness, noun
- qua·si-or·di·nar·y, adjective
- su·per·or·di·nar·y, adjective
- un·or·di·nar·y, adjective
Words Nearby ordinary
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ordinary in a sentence
The company also offers a Web dashboard of data for ordinary investors.
How the rich got richer: Reddit trading frenzy benefited Wall Street elite | Douglas MacMillan, Yeganeh Torbati | February 8, 2021 | Washington PostInternet shutdowns “hurt ordinary people by depriving us of our fundamental rights to access information, to connect with family members, and they also put our physical safety at risk,” Micek says.
Myanmar: How repressive regimes quash dissent with Internet shutdowns | Robert Hackett | February 2, 2021 | FortuneThe two of us primarily text, so a call was out of the ordinary.
I jumped the queue to get an expiring vaccine. Did I do the right thing? | Niall Firth | February 1, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewThese two appear to be ordinary, run-of-the-mill tectonic quakes.
Rumbles on Mars Raise Hopes of Underground Magma Flows | Robin George Andrews | February 1, 2021 | Quanta MagazineInstead, wealth is transferred from ordinary investors to bubble sellers.
The epic GameStop short squeeze continues to roil global markets—even Bitcoin is off | Bernhard Warner | January 28, 2021 | Fortune
There was nothing out of the ordinary, but for the fact that Jim was gay.
I Was Gang Raped at a UVA Frat 30 Years Ago, and No One Did Anything | Liz Seccuro | December 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe Rizzoli in New York City was no ordinary bookstore in its seventies heyday.
The Bookstore That Bewitched Mick Jagger, John Lennon, and Greta Garbo | Felice Picano | December 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThey refused to believe that ordinary humans could beat them at their own game.
At the White House on Monday, Obama praised Hagel as “no ordinary secretary of defense.”
Hagel Takes a Bullet for Obama: Inside the Defense Secretary’s Sudden Firing | Shane Harris, Tim Mak | November 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“My experience was very ordinary, but very privileged,” she said.
Women Share Their Secret Abortion Stories For 1 in 3 Campaign | Brandy Zadrozny | November 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBacteria, when present in great numbers, give a uniform cloud which cannot be removed by ordinary filtration.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddAll the ordinary subjects in schools have been taught over and over again millions and millions of times.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) WellsIn one sense, then, the new issue has adequate expansibility for ordinary needs.
Readings in Money and Banking | Chester Arthur PhillipsWhen ordinary methods do not suffice, it can usually be cleared by shaking up with a little magnesium carbonate and filtering.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddIt behaves the same as glucose with all the ordinary tests, and can be distinguished only by polarization.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
British Dictionary definitions for ordinary
/ (ˈɔːdənrɪ) /
of common or established type or occurrence
familiar, everyday, or unexceptional
uninteresting or commonplace
having regular or ex officio jurisdiction: an ordinary judge
maths (of a differential equation) containing two variables only and derivatives of one of the variables with respect to the other
a common or average situation, amount, or degree (esp in the phrase out of the ordinary)
a normal or commonplace person or thing
civil law a judge who exercises jurisdiction in his own right
(usually capital) an ecclesiastic, esp a bishop, holding an office to which certain jurisdictional powers are attached
RC Church
the parts of the Mass that do not vary from day to day: Compare proper (def. 13)
a prescribed form of divine service, esp the Mass
the US name for penny-farthing
heraldry any of several conventional figures, such as the bend, the fesse, and the cross, commonly charged upon shields
history a clergyman who visited condemned prisoners before their death
British obsolete
a meal provided regularly at a fixed price
the inn providing such meals
in ordinary British (used esp in titles) in regular service or attendance: physician in ordinary to the sovereign
Origin of ordinary
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with ordinary
see out of the ordinary.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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