mediocre
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Not excellent or outstanding, usually disappointingly so.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
meedeeohkerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
midiˈoʊkɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Not excellent or outstanding, usually disappointingly so.
noun
A person of minor significance, accomplishment or acclaim; a common and undistinguished person.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not excellent or outstanding, usually disappointingly so.
Used this way, mediocre is a reasonably familiar word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Mediocre is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Nearby words
- average , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.