Word.ws English Dictionary

average

Syllables: av·er·ageUK/ˈæv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ//ˈæv.ɚ.ɪd͡ʒ/

average noun: any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.

average: any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode
Image: M. W. Toews, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

average (plural averages)

  1. Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.
    • You need to show some averages in an executive summary, show some samples of raw data in the document body, and move the full raw data to an appendix.
    • In conclusion, it may savour of anticlimax to mention that from May 22 the famous "Sud Express," over the same route, has been covering the 359.7 miles from Paris Austerlitz to Bordeaux in 4 hr. 59 min. daily, at a start-to-stop average of 72.2 m.p.h., and that the northbound train has been taking...1955 June, 'Mercury', “Over 200 Miles Per Hour”, in Railway Magazine, page 380
    1. The arithmetic mean.
      • The average of 10, 20 and 24 is (10 + 20 + 24)/3 = 18.
      • But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2024, page 11
  2. A financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.
    • Historically, the courts have allowed a general average claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.[…]The court awarded the carrier the general average claim. It noted that “a ship′s master should not be discouraged from taking timely action to avert a...2008, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, Richard Schaffer, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, International Business Law and Its Environment, page 219
    1. (dated) Proportional or equitable distribution of financial expense.
    2. (obsolete) Customs duty or similar charge payable on transported goods.
  3. An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.
    • batting average

Adjective

average (comparative more average, superlative most average, abbreviation av. or ave. or avg.)

  1. (not comparable) Constituting or relating to the average.
    • The average age of the participants was 18.5.
    Synonyms:
    mean, expectation
  2. Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.
    • I soon found I was only an average chess player.
    Antonyms:
    extraordinary
  3. Typical.
    • The average family will not need the more expensive features of this product.
    • We tend to think that exceptionally attractive men and women are outstanding but the fact is that they are more average than most.2002, Andy Turnbull, The Synthetic Beast: When Corporations Come to Life, page 12
  4. (informal) Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor.
    • The graphics, sound, and most everything else are all very average. However, the main thing that brings this game down are the controls - they feel very clumsy and awkward at times.2002, Andy Slaven, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002, page 228
    • But what the vast majority of the populace doesn′t realise is the fact that he′s only on TV because he became famous from one case, Winona Ryder's, which, by the way, he lost because he′s only a very average attorney.2005, Brad Knight, Laci Peterson: The Whole Story: Laci, Scott, and Amber's Deadly Love Triangle, page 308

Verb

average (third-person singular simple present averages, present participle averaging, simple past and past participle averaged)

  1. (transitive) To compute the average of, especially the arithmetic mean.
    • If you average 10, 20, and 24, you get 18.
  2. (transitive) Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of.
    • The daily high temperature last month averaged 15°C.
    • I averaged 75% in my examinations this year.
  3. (transitive) To divide among a number, according to a given proportion.
    • to average a loss
  4. (intransitive) To be, generally or on average.
    • Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build […]1872, Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds

Noun (2)

average (plural averages)

  1. (UK, obsolete) The feudal service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.

average meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

average in Hindi

average, mean
औसत ausat
average, mediocre, middling
मुतवस्सित mutvassit
average, fair
दरमियानी darmiyānī

average in Tamil

நிரவல், சராசரி, நிரலளவு, வழக்கமான தொகை, பொதுப்படையான மதிப்பீடு, பொதுவான மதிப்பளவுள்ள

average in Marathi

सरासरी

average in Urdu

average, middle
مدھم maddham
More languagesFewer languages
average in Bengali
গড়, গড়পড়তা মান, চলতি ধরন, মাঝামাঝি ধরন
average in Telugu
సగటు sagaṭu, సరాసరి sarāsari, మోస్తరు mōstaru
average in Malayalam
ശരാശരി śarāśari
average in Kannada
ಸರಾಸರಿ
average in Punjabi
ਦਰਮਿਆਨਾ darmiānā
average in Gujarati
સરેરાશ, સરેરાશની
average in Odia
ହାରାହାରି
average in Nepali
औसत
average in Tagalog
balasak
average in Arabic
مُعَدَّل muʕaddal, مُتَوَسِّط mutawassiṭ
average in Malay
purata, pukul rata, hitung panjang, rerata
average in Indonesian
nilai rerata, rata-rata, rata-rata hitung, rerata
average in Persian
متوسط motavasset, motevasset
average in Thai
โดยเฉลี่ย dooi-chà-lìia
average in Vietnamese
trung bình

Examples of average in a sentence

  • Historically, the courts have allowed a general average claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.[…]The court awarded the carrier the general average claim.2008, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, Richard Schaffer, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, International Business Law and Its Environment...
  • Things that never would occur to more average children, with and without AD/HD, will give these children nightmares.2004, Deirdre V. Lovecky, Different Minds: Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome, and Other Learning Deficits, page 75:
  • In other words, highly attractive people like highly attractive communicators and more average people like more average communicators.2009, Susan T. Fiske, Social Beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology, page 73:
  • In the piano stool there was a stack of music, mostly sentimental ballads intended to be sung by people with very average voices accompanied by not very competent pianists.2009, Carn Tiernan, On the Back of the Other Side, page 62:

All 40 example sentences with average

Synonyms of average

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of average

Forms of average

Noun
pluralaverages
Adjective
comparativemore average
superlativemost average
abbreviationav.
abbreviationave.
abbreviationavg.
Verb
third-person singular presentaverages
present participleaveraging
past participleaveraged
pastaveraged

Past tense of average: averaged

Plural of average: averages

Origin of average

Not entirely certain. The oldest meaning in English is “customs duty”. Borrowed from Middle French avarie (“damage to ship or cargo”), from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria where it is first attested in the 12th century in the context of Mediterranean trade. From there most sources trace it to Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”), but the OED gives it a Romance derivation from Italian avere (“property, goods”) or the like. The English suffix -age was added in analogy to words like damage.

From Middle English average, from Medieval Latin averagium, from aver (“horse or other beast of burden, service required from the same”) from Old English eafor (“obligation to carry goods and convey messages for one's lord”) from aferian (“to remove, take away”); + -age.

Words formed from average

Phrases with average

Questions about average

What does average mean?
Average means any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.
What is average in Hindi?
Average in Hindi is औसत (ausat), मुतवस्सित (mutvassit), दरमियानी (darmiyānī). See Average meaning in Hindi.
How do you use average in a sentence?
Historically, the courts have allowed a general average claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.[…]The court awarded the carrier the general average claim.
What part of speech is average?
Average can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce average?
Average is pronounced /ˈæv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the plural of average?
The plural of average is averages.

Words near average in the dictionary

  1. avenues
  2. Avenzoar
  3. aveolate
  4. aver
  5. avera
  6. average
  7. average access time
  8. average atomic mass
  9. average atomic masses
  10. average bear
  11. average bears

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: average (page history and authors); औसत (Hindi) (page history and authors); average (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); average (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); مدھم (Urdu) (page history and authors); average (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); average (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਦਰਮਿਆਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); average (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); average (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); average (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-average.ogg.

Cite this entry: “average.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/average. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.