Word.ws English Dictionary

in ordinary

in ordinary prepositional phrase: in an official capacity (chiefly as a post-modifier in official titles).

Prepositional phrase

  1. In an official capacity (chiefly as a post-modifier in official titles).
    • An ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resident at a foreign court.
    • The king experienced his first attack in autumn 1788, and as his condition worsened and the physicians-in-ordinary proved unable to cope or cure, the Reverend Dr Francis Willis (1717–1807), a clergyman doctor who ran a madhouse in Lincolnshire, was called in.1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 263
  2. Out of commission and laid up; said of a naval vessel.

Questions about in ordinary

What does in ordinary mean?
In ordinary means in an official capacity (chiefly as a post-modifier in official titles).
What part of speech is in ordinary?
In ordinary is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in ordinary in the dictionary

  1. in operation
  2. in order
  3. in order for
  4. in order that
  5. in order to
  6. in ordinary
  7. in other news
  8. in other words
  9. in otherwords
  10. in pairs
  11. in pampers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in ordinary (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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