Word.ws English Dictionary

Mendoza line

Mendoza line noun: a .200 batting average, which is around the minimum batting average a player with strong defensive skills can have and still stay in the major leagues. Named for Mario Mendoza.

Noun

Mendoza line

  1. A .200 batting average, which is around the minimum batting average a player with strong defensive skills can have and still stay in the major leagues. Named for Mario Mendoza.
    • His recent slump has put him perilously close to the Mendoza line; he may be headed to AAA soon.
  2. The line dividing acceptable mediocrity from unacceptable mediocrity
    • I don’t think you could find any other figure in politics who has run this far below the Mendoza line and still managed to get taken seriously.
    • A sub-$2,000 per theater average... is the Mendoza Line of box office numbers.

Origin of Mendoza line

After shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose lifetime batting average is taken to define the threshold of minimally competent hitting.

Questions about Mendoza line

What does Mendoza line mean?
Mendoza line means a .200 batting average, which is around the minimum batting average a player with strong defensive skills can have and still stay in the major leagues. Named for Mario Mendoza.
What part of speech is Mendoza line?
Mendoza line is a noun.

Words near Mendoza line in the dictionary

  1. Mendooran
  2. Mendosa
  3. Mendosas
  4. Mendota
  5. mendoza
  6. Mendoza line
  7. mendozas
  8. mendozavilite
  9. mendozer
  10. mendozers
  11. mendozite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mendoza line (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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