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Average
Definitions
- 1 Constituting or relating to the average. not-comparable
"The average age of the participants was 18.5."
- 2 Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.
"I soon found I was only an average chess player."
- 3 Typical.
"The average family will not need the more expensive features of this product."
- 4 Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor. informal
"The graphics, sound, and most everything else are all very average. However, the main thing that brings this game down are the controls - they feel very clumsy and awkward at times."
- 1 lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered wordnet
- 2 around the middle of a scale of evaluation wordnet
- 3 approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value wordnet
- 4 relating to or constituting the middle value of an ordered set of values (or the average of the middle two in a set with an even number of values) wordnet
- 5 relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a distribution wordnet
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- 6 lacking exceptional quality or ability wordnet
- 1 Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.
"You need to show some averages in an executive summary, show some samples of raw data in the document body, and move the full raw data to an appendix."
- 2 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. UK, obsolete
- 3 an intermediate scale value regarded as normal or usual wordnet
- 4 Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.; The arithmetic mean.
"The average of 10, 20 and 24 is (10 + 20 + 24)/3 = 18."
- 5 a statistic describing the location of a distribution wordnet
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- 6 Financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.
"Historically, the courts have allowed a general average claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.[…]The court awarded the carrier the general average claim. It noted that “a ship′s master should not be discouraged from taking timely action to avert a disaster,” and need not be in actual peril to claim general average."
- 7 (sports) the ratio of successful performances to opportunities wordnet
- 8 Financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.; Proportional or equitable distribution of financial expense. dated
- 9 Financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.; Customs duty or similar charge payable on transported goods. obsolete
- 10 An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.
"batting average"
- 1 To compute the average of, especially the arithmetic mean. transitive
"If you average 10, 20 and 24, you get 18."
- 2 compute the average of wordnet
- 3 Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of. transitive
"The daily high temperature last month averaged 15°C."
- 4 achieve or reach on average wordnet
- 5 To divide among a number, according to a given proportion. transitive
"to average a loss"
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- 6 amount to or come to an average, without loss or gain wordnet
- 7 To be, generally or on average. intransitive
"Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build […]"
Etymology
Not entirely certain. The oldest meaning in English is “customs duty”. Borrowed from Middle French avarie (“damage to ship or cargo”), from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria where it is first attested in the 12th century in the context of Mediterranean trade. From there most sources trace it to Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”), but the OED gives it a Romance derivation from Italian avere (“property, goods”) or the like. The English suffix -age was added in analogy to words like damage.
Not entirely certain. The oldest meaning in English is “customs duty”. Borrowed from Middle French avarie (“damage to ship or cargo”), from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria where it is first attested in the 12th century in the context of Mediterranean trade. From there most sources trace it to Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”), but the OED gives it a Romance derivation from Italian avere (“property, goods”) or the like. The English suffix -age was added in analogy to words like damage.
Not entirely certain. The oldest meaning in English is “customs duty”. Borrowed from Middle French avarie (“damage to ship or cargo”), from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria where it is first attested in the 12th century in the context of Mediterranean trade. From there most sources trace it to Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”), but the OED gives it a Romance derivation from Italian avere (“property, goods”) or the like. The English suffix -age was added in analogy to words like damage.
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.
See also for "average"
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