What does "normal" mean?
A line or vector that is perpendicular to another line, surface, or plane.
Normal
/ˈnɔː.məl/ adj, noun, slang
adj, noun, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A line or vector that is perpendicular to another line, surface, or plane.
- Grammar: normal is listed as adj, noun, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: academe, academia, accepted, according to hoyle.
- Useful contrasts: conspicuous, different, eccentric.
- Usage evidence: Stop seeing me as a "normal" person!
How to use "normal"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "normal" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "normal" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "normal" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "normal" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "normal" is acting as adj, noun, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "academe" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "normal", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A line or vector that is perpendicular to another line, surface, or plane. countable
- 2 something regarded as a normative example wordnet
- 3 A person who is healthy, normal, as opposed to one who is morbid. countable
"Subjects were grouped as Group 1 and Group 2 according to VAI, and normals, overweights and obeses according to BMI."
- 4 A person who is normal, who fits into mainstream society, as opposed to those who live alternative lifestyles. countable, slang
- 5 The usual state. countable, uncountable
"I was quite ill for a while, but latterly seem to have returned to normal."
Adjective
- 1 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.
"Organize the data into third normal form."
- 2 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; In whose representation in a given base b ≥ 2, for every positive integer n, the bⁿ possible strings of n digits follow a uniform distribution.
"A number whose individual digits in a given base representation follow a uniform distribution is said to be simply normal."
- 3 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; With cosets which form a group.
- 4 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which is the splitting field of a family of polynomials in K.
- 5 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which has a very specific bell curve shape; that is or has the qualities of a normal distribution. usually
Show 18 more definitions
- 6 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which is pre-compact.
- 7 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which is strictly monotonically increasing and continuous with respect to the order topology.
- 8 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which commutes with its conjugate transpose.
- 9 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which commutes with its adjoint.
- 10 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which is the kernel or cokernel of some morphism, respectively.
- 11 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Which contains only normal morphisms.
- 12 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; In which disjoint closed sets can be separated by disjoint neighborhoods.
- 13 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Integrally closed: equal its own integral closure in its field of fractions.
- 14 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Such that all of its localizations at prime ideals are integrally closed domains.
- 15 According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.; Adhering to or being what is considered natural or regular in a particular field or context:; Such that the local ring at every point is an integrally closed domain.
- 16 Usual, healthy; not sick or ill or unlike oneself.
"John is feeling normal again."
- 17 Usual, healthy; not sick or ill or unlike oneself.; Fervently interested in a subject; obsessed. sarcastic, slang
"I wrote a 30-page analysis of the show’s villain because I’m very normal about them."
- 18 Teaching teachers how to teach; teaching teachers the norms of education.
"My grandmother attended Mankato State Normal School; my grandfather attended Illinois State Normal University."
- 19 Of, relating to, or being a solution containing one equivalent weight of solute per litre of solution.
- 20 Describing a straight chain isomer of an aliphatic hydrocarbon, or an aliphatic compound in which a substituent is in the 1- position of such a hydrocarbon.
- 21 In which all parts of an object vibrate at the same frequency (a normal mode).
- 22 In the default position, set for the most frequently used route.
- 23 Perpendicular to a tangent of a curve or tangent plane of a surface.
"The interior normal vector of a perfect sphere always point toward the center, and the exterior normal vector directly away, and both are always collinear with the ray whose tip ends at the point of intersection, which is the intersection of all three sets of points."
Adjective
- 1 conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm; not abnormal wordnet
- 2 being approximately average or within certain limits in e.g. intelligence and development wordnet
- 3 in accordance with scientific laws wordnet
- 4 forming a right angle wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"Stop seeing me as a "normal" person!"
Common questions
What is a synonym for "normal"?
Common synonyms include: academe, academia, accepted, according to hoyle, accustomed, air line.
How do you use "normal" in a sentence?
Stop seeing me as a "normal" person!
How do you pronounce "normal"?
Pronounced /ˈnɔː.məl/.
Etymology
From Latin normālis (“made according to a carpenter's square; later: according to a rule”), from nōrma (“carpenter's square”), of uncertain origin; doublet of normale. The earliest meaning of the word in English was "perpendicular; forming a right angle" like something normālis (“made according to a carpenter's square”), but by Late Latin normālis had also come to mean "according to a rule", from which modern English senses of the word derive: in the 1800s, as people began to quantitatively study things like height, weight and blood pressure, the usual or most common values came to be called "normal", and by extension values regarded as healthy or desirable came to be called "normal" regardless of their usuality.