average

English Online Dictionary. What means average‎? What does average mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle French avarie, from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria (which is possibly from Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”)) + English suffix -age.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) enPR: ăvʹ(ə)rĭ IPA^(key): /ˈæv(ə)ɹɪd͡ʒ/
• Hyphenation: av‧er‧age, av‧erage

Noun

average (plural averages)

1. (mathematics) The arithmetic mean.
2. (statistics) Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode. [from c. 1735]
3. (law, marine) Financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss. [from 15th c.]
4. Customs duty or similar charge payable on transported goods.
5. Proportional or equitable distribution of financial expense.
6. (sports) An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.

Usage notes

• (mathematics, statistics): The term average may refer to the statistical mean, median or mode of a batch, sample, or distribution, or sometimes any other measure of central tendency. Statisticians and responsible news sources are careful to use whichever of these specific terms is appropriate. In common usage, average refers to the arithmetic mean. It is, however, a common rhetorical trick to call the most favorable of mean, median and mode the "average" depending on the interpretation of a set of figures that the speaker or writer wants to promote.

Coordinate terms

• (measure of central tendency): arithmetic mean, geometric mean, harmonic mean, mean, median, mode

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

average (comparative more average, superlative most average)

1. (not comparable) Constituting or relating to the average.

2. Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.

3. Typical.
4. (informal) Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor.

Synonyms

• (constituting or relating to the average): av., ave., avg., expectation (colloquial), mean
• (neither very good nor very bad): mediocre, medium, middle-ranking, middling, unremarkable, so-so, comme ci comme ça
• (typical): conventional, normal, regular, standard, typical, usual, bog-standard (slang)
• (not outstanding, not good; bad or poor): ordinary, uninspiring

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “neither very good nor very bad”): extraordinary

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

average (third-person singular simple present averages, present participle averaging, simple past and past participle averaged)

1. (transitive) To compute the average of, especially the arithmetic mean.

2. (transitive) Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of.
3. (transitive) To divide among a number, according to a given proportion.

4. (intransitive) To be, generally or on average.

Derived terms

• average down
• average out
• average up
• averageable
• unaveraged

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English average, from Medieval Latin averagium, from aver (“horse or other beast of burden, service required from the same”) from Old English eafor (“obligation to carry goods and convey messages for one's lord”) from aferian (“to remove, take away”); + -age.

Noun

average (plural averages)

1. (UK, law, obsolete) The service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.

Translations

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English average.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈævəɹɪd͡ʒ], [ˈɛvəʁɪtʃ]
• Hyphenation: ave‧rage

Adjective

average (indeclinable)

1. (dated, business) average

Further reading

• “average” in Duden online
• “average” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Middle French

Etymology

The Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch derives the word from Old French aver +‎ -age, where aver means "cattle" and is cognate to English aver (“work-horse, working ox, or other beast of burden”). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) compares it to Medieval Latin averagium, from averia (“beast of burden”) (which the Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch in turn links to habeō (“to have”)).

Noun

average m (plural averages)

1. average (service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.)

References

• average on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (average)