Word.ws English Dictionary

averdupois

averdupois is the archaic spelling of avoirdupois.

Meaning of avoirdupois

Noun

avoirdupois (usually uncountable, plural avoirdupoises)

  1. (historical, usually) The official system of weights used in the UK between 1856 and 1963. It had been the customary system in London since 1300.
  2. (historical, usually) The official system of weights used in the USA between 1866 and 1959.
  3. (humorous, usually) Weight; heaviness.
    • It seems humanly reasonable that the three of us can woman-handle a mere man of your elderly and insulting avoirdupois.1915, Jack London, The Little Lady of the Big House
  4. (obsolete, usually) Merchandise.
    • From that mountain go men to the city of Thauriso that was wont to be clept Taxis, that is a full fair city and a great, and one of the best that is in the world for merchandise; thither come all merchants for to buy avoirdupois, and it is in the land of the Emperor of Persia.1357, John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, modernized spelling edition

Questions about averdupois

What is averdupois the archaic spelling of?
Averdupois is the archaic spelling of avoirdupois.

Words near averdupois in the dictionary

  1. averbal
  2. Averbuch
  3. Averch-Johnson effect
  4. Averch-Johnson effects
  5. avercorn
  6. averdupois
  7. avered
  8. Averett
  9. Averette
  10. Averettes
  11. Averetts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: averdupois (page history and authors); avoirdupois (page history and authors). 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.

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