ordinary
/ˈɔːdɪn(ə)ri
/ /ˈɔːd(ə)n(ə)ri/adjective
1With no special or distinctive features; normal: he sets out to depict ordinary people it was just an ordinary evening...
- Mr Cheetham, who is a student at Northumbria University, said he thought Mr Gormley's works would help to break down prejudices against modern art, featuring as they do ordinary people.
- An exhibition featuring the ordinary lives of Greenlanders and their arts and crafts came to Sofia for the first time on Tuesday.
- Rather, it featured the works of ordinary folk making their first venture into the arts world.
Synonyms
usual, normal, standard, typical, stock, common, customary, habitual, accustomed, expected, wonted, everyday, regular, routine, day-to-day, daily, established, settled, set, fixed, traditional, quotidian, prevailing
1.1Not interesting or exceptional; commonplace: she seemed very ordinary...
- What happened to me was not ordinary and average and commonplace and I reject any word that makes it appear so.
- This was another case of ordinary life being more interesting than it looked at first sight.
- Imagine on top of this that you wanted, in fact, to mount an argument as to what makes certain daguerreotypes exceptional and others merely ordinary.
Synonyms
average, normal, run-of-the-mill, standard, typical, middle-of-the-road, common, conventional, mainstream, unremarkable, unexceptional, unpretentious, modest, plain, simple, homely, homespun, workaday, undistinguished, nondescript, characterless, colourless, commonplace, humdrum, mundane, unmemorable, pedestrian, prosaic, quotidian, uninteresting, uneventful, dull, boring, uninspiring, bland, suburban, hackneyed, stale, mediocre, middling, indifferent;
North American garden-variety
informal OK, so-so, bog-standard, vanilla, plain vanilla, nothing to write home about, a dime a dozen, no great shakes, not up to much, corny, hacky
British informal common or garden
North American informal ornery
2(Especially of a judge or bishop) exercising authority by virtue of office and not by deputation.Should this be the case, an ordinary judge is not allowed to disregard the national legislation but is bound to refer it to the Constitutional Court....
- Murphy's model was to have senior judges and ordinary judges under the one umbrella.
- All the ordinary judges of the Supreme Court and the chief justice were educated in private schools.
noun (plural ordinaries)
1 (the ordinary) What is commonplace or standard: their clichés were vested with enough emotion to elevate them above the ordinary...
- Luxurious style, fine craftsmanship, and authentic details elevate Aladdin Resort & Casino far above the ordinary.
- This being a Dreamworks disc, and a ‘Special Edition’ at that, you can bet on a collection of extra material that is a cut above the ordinary.
- Opulent style, fine craftsmanship, and authentic details elevate Paris Las Vegas far above the ordinary.
2 Law, British A judge who exercises authority by virtue of office and not by deputation.
3 (the Ordinary) A member of the clergy, such as an archbishop in a province or a bishop in a diocese, with immediate jurisdiction.Jeffrey Steenson is Canon to the Ordinary in the Episcopal diocese of the Rio Grande.
4 (Ordinary) Those parts of a Roman Catholic service, especially the Mass, which do not vary from day to day.Even so, between 1592 and 1595 Byrd published his three settings of the ordinary of the mass, the masses for three, four and five voices.
4.1A rule or book laying down the order of divine service.
5 Heraldry Any of the simplest principal charges used in coats of arms (especially chief, pale, bend, fess, bar, chevron, cross, saltire).
6 short for ordinary share.The spin offensive in today's papers has done nothing for News Corp's share price as the ordinaries dipped 16 cents to $11.02.
7 archaic A meal provided at a fixed time and price at an inn.
7.1An inn providing a meal at a fixed time and price.
8 historical, chiefly North American A penny-farthing bicycle.
Phrases
in ordinary
in the ordinary way
out of the ordinary
Derivatives
ordinariness
/ /ˈɔːd(ə)n(ə)rɪnəs / noun ...- It's about the innocent ordinariness of the victims.
- Eventually, ordinariness takes over everything.
- So this stone was monumental in its very ordinariness.
Origin
Late Middle English: the noun partly via Old French; the adjective from Latin ordinarius 'orderly' (reinforced by French ordinaire), from ordo, ordin- 'order'.