ordinary
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A person with authority.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awrduhnuhreeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɔɹdənɛɹi
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.
noun
A person with authority; authority, ordinance.
law
A judge with the authority to deal with cases himself or herself rather than by delegation.
The part of the Roman Catholic Mass that is the same every day
ecclesiasticallaw
A person having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law, such as the bishop within a diocese.
A clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death
A book setting out ordinary or regular conduct.
adjective
Being part of the natural order of things; normal, customary, routine.
Having no special characteristics or function; everyday, common, mundane; often deprecatory.
AustraliaNew Zealandcolloquialinformal
Bad or undesirable.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person with authority; authority, ordinance.
Used this way, ordinary is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ordinary
- “Ordinary everyday objects.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An authoritative rule.
The status of being ordained to a sacred office.
Related to A person with authority.
Under normal conditions.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An annuity paid in a series of more or less equal payments at the end of equally spaced periods.
An early bicycle with a very large front wheel and small back wheel.
The care that a reasonable man would exercise under the circumstances.
Insurance on the life of the insured for a fixed amount at a definite premium that is paid each year in the same amount during the entire lifetime of the insured.
Stock other than preferred stock.
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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.