Mediocrity
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The condition of being mediocre; having only an average degree of quality, skills etc.; no better than standard. uncountable
"Flexibility is good, but a tolerance for mediocrity carried far enough impairs operational capacity."
- 2 ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding wordnet
- 3 A person with mediocre abilities or achievements. countable
"populated with mediocrities"
- 4 a person of second-rate ability or value wordnet
- 5 The quality of being intermediate between two extremes; a mean. archaic, countable, uncountable
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- 6 A middle course of action; moderation, balance. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"Sundrie other Gent[lemen] reſt beholden to this hundred, for their dvvellings, vvho, in an enuiable mediocritie of fortune, do happilie poſſeſſe themſelues, and communicate their ſufficient means to the ſeruice of their prince, the good of their neighbours, and the bettering of their ovvn eſtate: […]"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity."
Etymology
From Middle French médiocrité, from Latin mediocritās, from mediocris; by surface analysis, mediocre + -ity.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.