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  • Adj.

average

AV-er-ij

Context
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In school, most of Freddy’s grades were average or right in the middle. His basketball moves were also average, not especially good or bad. In fact, Freddy’s skills were average—neither great nor poor—in many areas. His way with words was not average or common, though, and that is why he became a popular author who is now finishing his third book!

Quiz: If someone is an average video-game player, what does that mean?

  • They are not a great player, but they are also not bad at playing either.
  • They do not like to play those kinds of games because they aren’t very good at them.
  • They love to play video games and become upset when they cannot.

Memory Hook
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A Very Old Age Someone whose age is very old is not average, for he has lived past the time most people usually do.

Examples
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  • I would hardly say that I performed poorly in school. In fact, my grades were totally average. But I had to really work hard to get those average grades. — CNN
  • In fact, Lucky figured the average person went around thinking, "Those poor snakes sure have been waiting a long time to evolve some legs." — Susan Patron, American author, from _The Higher Power of Lucky_

Word Ingredients
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The word average comes from a word that originally meant “goods damaged during shipping.” The quality of goods or merchandise that begin in excellent condition but are damaged during shipping become of just average quality instead of very good; therefore, those items have less value and demand a lower price. Eventually the word average extended its meaning to cover anything of middle-level or so-so quality, being neither in poor nor good condition.

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Word Theater
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Ordinary Average Guy (Joe Walsh) Maybe his singing voice isn't so average!
1185

Word Constellation
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Average

Word Variants
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average n the middle value of a group of numbers, that is, the mathematical mean