ordinary

[ awr-dn-er-ee ]

/ ˈɔr dnˌɛr i /

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adjective

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.

customary; usual; normal: We plan to do the ordinary things this weekend.

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.

noun, plural or·di·nar·ies.

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.

penny-farthing.

Heraldry.

any of the simplest and commonest charges, usually having straight or broadly curved edges.
honorable ordinary.

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

ordinal scale, ordinance, ordinand, ordinariate, ordinarily, ordinary, ordinary differential equation, ordinary grade, ordinary income, ordinary jubilee, ordinary lay

Idioms

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

1250–1300; Middle English ordinarie (noun and adj.) < Latin ordinārius regular, of the usual order, equivalent to ordin- (see order) + -ārius -ary

SYNONYMS FOR ordinary

4 regular, accustomed.

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ANTONYMS FOR ordinary

1 extraordinary, unusual, exceptional.

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Related forms

or·di·nar·i·ness, nounqua·si-or·di·nar·y, adjectivesu·per·or·di·nar·y, adjectiveun·or·di·nar·y, adjective

Synonym study

3. See common.

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

Examples from the Web for unordinary

It was enough that he qualified as that all too unordinary social phenomenon, "an amusing person."
Linda Lee, Incorporated|Louis Joseph Vance
It was a six-legged, striped, catlike beast, not unordinary as interplanetary animals go.
The World with a Thousand Moons|Edmond Hamilton

British Dictionary definitions for unordinary

ordinary

/ (ˈɔːdənrɪ) /

adjective

of common or established type or occurrence

familiar, everyday, or unexceptional

uninteresting or commonplace

having regular or ex officio jurisdictionan ordinary judge

maths (of a differential equation) containing two variables only and derivatives of one of the variables with respect to the other

noun plural -naries

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 dayCompare 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 attendancephysician in ordinary to the sovereign

Word Origin for ordinary

C16: (adj) and C13: (some n senses): ultimately from Latin ordinārius orderly, from ordō order

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

Idioms and Phrases with unordinary

ordinary

see out of the ordinary.