average
Americannoun
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a quantity, rating, or the like that represents or approximates an arithmetic mean.
Her golf average is in the 90s. My average in science has gone from B to C this semester.
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a typical amount, rate, degree, etc.; norm.
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Statistics. arithmetic mean.
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Mathematics. a quantity intermediate to a set of quantities.
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Commerce.
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a charge paid by the master of a ship for such services as pilotage or towage.
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an expense, partial loss, or damage to a ship or cargo.
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the incidence of such an expense or loss to the owners or their insurers.
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an equitable apportionment among all the interested parties of such an expense or loss.
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adjective
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of or relating to an average; estimated by average; forming an average.
The average rainfall there is 180 inches.
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typical; common; ordinary.
The average secretary couldn't handle such a workload. His grades were nothing special, only average.
verb (used with object)
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to find an average value for (a variable quantity); reduce to a mean.
We averaged the price of milk in five neighborhood stores.
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(of a variable quantity) to have as its arithmetic mean.
Wheat averages 56 pounds to a bushel.
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to do or have on the average.
He averages seven hours of sleep a night.
verb (used without object)
verb phrase
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average up to purchase more of a security or commodity at a higher price to take advantage of a contemplated further rise in prices.
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average out
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to come out of a security or commodity transaction with a profit or without a loss.
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to reach an average or other figure.
His taxes should average out to about a fifth of his income.
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average down to purchase more of a security or commodity at a lower price to reduce the average cost of one's holdings.
idioms
noun
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the typical or normal amount, quality, degree, etc
above average in intelligence
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Also called: arithmetic mean. the result obtained by adding the numbers or quantities in a set and dividing the total by the number of members in the set
the average of 3, 4, and 8 is 5
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(of a continuously variable ratio, such as speed) the quotient of the differences between the initial and final values of the two quantities that make up the ratio
his average over the journey was 30 miles per hour
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maritime law
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a loss incurred or damage suffered by a ship or its cargo at sea
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the equitable apportionment of such loss among the interested parties
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(often plural) stock exchange a simple or weighted average of the prices of a selected group of securities computed in order to facilitate market comparisons
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usually; typically
on average, he goes twice a week
adjective
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usual or typical
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mediocre or inferior
his performance was only average
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constituting a numerical average
the average age
an average speed
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approximately typical of a range of values
the average contents of a matchbox
verb
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(tr) to obtain or estimate a numerical average of
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(tr) to assess the general quality of
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(tr) to perform or receive a typical number of
to average eight hours' work a day
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(tr) to divide up proportionately
they averaged the profits among the staff
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(tr) to amount to or be on average
the children averaged 15 years of age
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(intr) stock exchange to purchase additional securities in a holding whose price has fallen ( average down ) or risen ( average up ) in anticipation of a speculative profit after further increases in price
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A number, especially the arithmetic mean, that is derived from and considered typical or representative of a set of numbers.
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Compare arithmetic mean median mode
Usage
What’s the difference between average, mean, median, and mode? In the context of mathematics and statistics, the word average refers to what’s more formally called the mean, which is the sum of a set of values divided by the number of values. In contrast, the median is the middle number in a set of values when those values are arranged from smallest to largest, while the mode of a set of values is the most frequently repeated value in the set. The word average is of course also very commonly used in more general ways. In math, though, it’s helpful to use more specific terms when determining the most representative or common value in a set of numbers. To illustrate the difference, let’s look at an example set of seven values: 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. To get the mean of this set, you’d add up all the values (2+3+3+4+6+8+9=35) and then divide that total by the number of values (7), resulting in a mean of 5. This is what most people are referring to when they refer to the average of some set of numbers. To find the median, you have to find the one that’s sequentially in the middle. In a set of seven numbers arranged in increasing value, the median is the fourth number (since there are three before and three after). In this set (2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9), the median is 4. When a set has an even number of values, the median is the mean of the two middle values. The mode is simply the value that shows up the most. In the example set, the mode is 3, since it occurs twice and all the other values occur only once. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between average, mean, median, and mode.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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averagenessnoun
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superaveragenessnoun
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averageableadjective
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subaverageadjective
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superaverageadjective
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unaveragedadjective
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underaverageadjective
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well-averagedadjective
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averagelyadverb
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subaveragelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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averagesimple
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averagessimple
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have averagedperfect
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has averagedperfect
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am averagingprogressive
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are averagingprogressive
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is averagingprogressive
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have been averagingperfect progressive
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has been averagingperfect progressive
Past
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averagedsimple
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had averagedperfect
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was averagingprogressive
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were averagingprogressive
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had been averagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of average
First recorded in 1485–95; earlier averay “charge on goods shipped,” originally, “duty” (with -age replacing -ay ), from Middle French avarie, from Old Italian avaria, of disputed origin; perhaps from Arabic ʿawārīyah “damaged merchandise” (from ʿawār “blemish, fault, flaw”) or akin to Old French aveir, avoir “goods, property” ( see avoirdupois ( def. ))
Explanation
If something is average, it's ordinary and not very special. You might say a movie was average if you thought it was just okay. Average can describe what's true most of the time, as in, “The average rainfall in Seattle is fifty-two inches.” It can also be used in a mathematical and more precise way. On his English tests, Dylan received grades of 92%, 85% and 94%. His average grade was 90%, or the sum of the test scores divided by the number of tests taken.
Vocabulary lists containing average
Baseball: A Lexicon
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Words for the World Series
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Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
His batting average: .266 before Smith’s injury, .233 since then.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
By comparison, last week, an average of 30 vessels a day crossed the strait using a combination of routes, still below the roughly 130 crossings a day before the war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Once an offer is accepted it takes an average of 120 days to complete.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Michigan, the hardest-hit state, reports more than 5,000 cases—nearly twice the number of people who get the parasite nationwide in an average year.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
In other words, the average forager had wider, deeper and more varied knowledge of her immediate surroundings than most of her modern descendants.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Allow us to clear the air: Canada has reported about 3,500 wildfires so far this year, which is in line with recent historical averages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
It also doesn’t help that when talking about cliffs, scientists tend to speak in averages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
The temperatures, well above seasonal averages, could break records, the National Weather Service warned.
From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026
Meanwhile, the popular programme Hockey Night in Canada, which shows NHL games, averages an estimated 1.2 million viewers per broadcast.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Dear Diary, Ever since Ms. Gruwell announced that the Freedom Writers with the top thirty-five grade point averages would win computers when we graduated, I started getting As and Bs on my report card.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
It recommended increasing the threshold to 20% of sitting days, averaged out over two sessions.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
For context, 2022 was a bonanza for refiners when the spread averaged less than $40.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Prices averaged $3.86 a gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
“This would be a lower-than-average Part B increase, which has averaged 5.4% per year over the past decade,” Johnson said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Seabiscuit shipped all over the Northeast, never stayed more than two or three weeks in one place, averaged one race every five days, and racked up losses to inferior horses practically every time out.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
So-called gasoline crack spreads, which measure the difference between gasoline and crude-oil prices, are averaging 90 cents a gallon so far this month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
A cliff averaging one foot a year might actually not do anything dramatic for 20 years, and then a 20-foot collapse will abruptly topple in one go.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
It has hosted major live events in more than 60 countries, averaging more than 400,000 attendees a year since the first Go Fest in 2017.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
With the median home price at $403,500 and the 30-year mortgage rate averaging 6.3%, the average homeowner faces a monthly total housing payment of roughly $3,070.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
At the cafeteria, where a shrinking slice of my consciousness still resided, Daisy was telling Mychal that his averaging project shouldn’t be about people named Mychal but about imprisoned men who’d later been exonerated.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.