ORDINARY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ordinary mean? 

• ORDINARY (noun)
  The noun ORDINARY has 5 senses:

1. a judge of a probate court

2. the expected or commonplace condition or situation

3. a clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death

4. an early bicycle with a very large front wheel and small back wheel

5. (heraldry) any of several conventional figures used on shields

  Familiarity information: ORDINARY used as a noun is common.

• ORDINARY (adjective)
  The adjective ORDINARY has 2 senses:

1. not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability or size or degree

2. lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered

  Familiarity information: ORDINARY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ORDINARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A judge of a probate court

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ordinary" is a kind of...):

judge; jurist; justice (a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The expected or commonplace condition or situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

not out of the ordinary

Hypernyms ("ordinary" is a kind of...):

condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ordinary" is a kind of...):

clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend (a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An early bicycle with a very large front wheel and small back wheel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

ordinary; ordinary bicycle

Hypernyms ("ordinary" is a kind of...):

bicycle; bike; cycle; wheel (a wheeled vehicle that has two wheels and is moved by foot pedals)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(heraldry) any of several conventional figures used on shields

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("ordinary" is a kind of...):

armorial bearing; bearing; charge; heraldic bearing (heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield)

Domain category:

heraldry (the study and classification of armorial bearings and the tracing of genealogies)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ordinary"):

bend; bend dexter (diagonal line traversing a shield from the upper right corner to the lower left)

fess; fesse ((heraldry) an ordinary consisting of a broad horizontal band across a shield)

bar sinister; bend sinister (a mark of bastardy; lines from top right to bottom left)

• ORDINARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability or size or degree

Context example:

an ordinary wine

Similar:

mine run; run-of-the-mill; run-of-the-mine; undistinguished; unexceptional (not special in any way; lacking distinction)

indifferent; so-so (being neither good nor bad)

everyday; mundane; quotidian; routine; unremarkable; workaday (found in the ordinary course of events)

cut-and-dried; cut-and-dry (according to ordinary expectations)

commonplace (completely ordinary and unremarkable)

common (to be expected; standard)

characterless; nondescript (lacking distinct or individual characteristics; dull and uninteresting)

banausic ((formal) ordinary and not refined)

average; fair; mediocre; middling (lacking exceptional quality or ability)

Also:

usual (occurring or encountered or experienced or observed frequently or in accordance with regular practice or procedure)

common (having no special distinction or quality; widely known or commonly encountered; average or ordinary or usual)

Attribute:

mundaneness; mundanity; ordinariness (the quality of being commonplace and ordinary)

Antonym:

extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)

Derivation:

ordinariness (the quality of being commonplace and ordinary)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered

Synonyms:

average; ordinary

Context example:

the ordinary (or common) man in the street

Similar:

common (having no special distinction or quality; widely known or commonly encountered; average or ordinary or usual)

Derivation:

ordinariness (the quality of being commonplace and ordinary)

 Context examples 

Class II: Slight limitation of ordinary activity.

(Canadian Cardiovascular Society Grading Scale Class, NCI Thesaurus)

It ran below its ordinary speed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

We know now that the processes that created the elements happened mostly in ordinary stars, in supernova explosions, or in the outer layers of old stars.

(First identification of a heavy element born from neutron star collision, ESO)

And Dora returned, looking such a lovely little creature, that I really doubted whether she ought to be troubled with anything so ordinary.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When we were alone, he said to me:—Jack Seward, I don't want to shove myself in anywhere where I've no right to be; but this is no ordinary case.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A grading of angina such that ordinary physical activity, such as walking or climbing stairs, does not cause angina.

(Canadian Cardiovascular Society Grading Scale Class I, NCI Thesaurus)

Instead, it lasts a long time and limits your ability to do ordinary daily activities.

(Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Some of your accomplishments are not ordinary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Marked limitations of ordinary physical activity.

(Canadian Cardiovascular Society Grading Scale Class III, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

Well, it's lucky for you, Challenger, that you ARE a little out of the ordinary.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)