English Explanatory Dictionary

ordinary

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person with authority; authority, ordinance.
  2. A person having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law, such as the bishop within a diocese.
  3. A courier; someone delivering mail or post.
  4. A judge with the authority to deal with cases himself or herself rather than by delegation.
  5. The chaplain of Newgate prison, who prepared condemned prisoners for death.
  6. Something ordinary or regular.
  7. Customary fare, one's regular daily allowance of food; (hence) a regular portion or allowance.
  8. A meal provided for a set price at an eating establishment.
  9. A place where such meals are served; a public tavern, inn.
  10. One of the standard geometric designs placed across the center of a coat of arms, such as a pale or fess.
  11. An ordinary person or thing; something commonplace.
  12. The usual course of things; normal condition or health; a standard way of behaviour or action.
adj
  1. Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.
  2. Being part of the natural order of things; normal, customary, routine.
  3. Having no special characteristics or function; everyday, common, mundane; often deprecatory.
  4. Bad or undesirable.
noun
  1. The part of the Roman Catholic Mass that is the same every day

Pronunciation

/ˈɔːdɪnəɹi/ /ˈɔːdənɹi/ /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ /ˈɔɹdɪnɛ(ə)ɹi/ en-us-ordinary.ogg en-au-ordinary.ogg

Word forms

ordinary ordinaries ordinarie more ordinary most ordinary

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman ordenarie, ordenaire et al., Middle French ordinaire, and their source, Medieval Latin ordinarius, noun use of Latin ōrdinārius (“regular, orderly”), from ōrdō (“order”).

Synonyms

commonplace plain usual average medial basic bog-standard common common-and-garden common-or-garden congruent consistent conventional customary everyday expected garden variety improminent mundane natural normal ordinary par for the course plain vanilla quotidian regular routine run-of-the-mill standard standard issue typical unexceptional unremarkable unstrange vulgar wakeaday workaday lackluster pedestrian comme ci comme ça crappy decent indifferent meh mediocre mid middling no great shakes nothing to write home about not worth writing home about okayish uninspiring shitty so-so tolerable whatever awful horrible terrible abysmal

Antonyms

extraordinary special

Derived words

infraordinary in ordinary intraordinary intra-ordinary nonordinary ordinarily ordinariness ordinarity ordinary course of business ordinary differential equation ordinary number ordinary seaman ordinary form ordinary language ordinary language philosophy ordinary magisterium ordinary resolution ordinary share ordinaryship ornery onry out of the ordinary person having ordinary skill in the art person of ordinary skill in the art subordinary superordinary supraordinary unordinary
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