average

noun

1. Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.

   “You need to show some averages in an executive summary, show some samples of raw data in the document body, and move the full raw data to an appendix.”

   “In conclusion, it may savour of anticlimax to mention that from May 22 the famous "Sud Express," over the same route, has been covering the 359.7 miles from Paris Austerlitz to Bordeaux in 4 hr. 59 min. daily, at a start-to-stop average of 72.2 m.p.h., and that the northbound train has been taking 5 hr. 7 min. for an average of 70.3.”

2. Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.

   “The average of 10, 20 and 24 is (10 + 20 + 24)/3 = 18.”

   “But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

3. A financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.

   “Historically, the courts have allowed a general average claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.[…]The court awarded the carrier the general average claim. It noted that “a ship′s master should not be discouraged from taking timely action to avert a disaster,” and need not be in actual peril to claim general average.”

4. (dated)A financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.
5. (obsolete)A financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.
6. An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.

   “batting average”

7. (UK, obsolete)The feudal service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Constituting or relating to the average.

   “The average age of the participants was 18.5.”

2. Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.

   “I soon found I was only an average chess player.”

3. Typical.

   “The average family will not need the more expensive features of this product.”

   “We tend to think that exceptionally attractive men and women are outstanding but the fact is that they are more average than most.”

   “Things that never would occur to more average children, with and without AD/HD, will give these children nightmares.”

   “In other words, highly attractive people like highly attractive communicators and more average people like more average communicators.”

4. (informal)Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor.

   “The graphics, sound, and most everything else are all very average. However, the main thing that brings this game down are the controls - they feel very clumsy and awkward at times.”

   “But what the vast majority of the populace doesn′t realise is the fact that he′s only on TV because he became famous from one case, Winona Ryder's, which, by the way, he lost because he′s only a very average attorney.”

   “In the piano stool there was a stack of music, mostly sentimental ballads intended to be sung by people with very average voices accompanied by not very competent pianists.”

verb

1. (transitive)To compute the average of, especially the arithmetic mean.

   “If you average 10, 20, and 24, you get 18.”

2. (transitive)Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of.

   “The daily high temperature last month averaged 15°C.”

   “I averaged 75% in my examinations this year.”

   “The five roller-bearing A1s are now averaging 120,000 miles between shopping; this figure is an improvement of about 50 per cent on the norm of other ex-L.N.E. Pacific types.”

   “This comes after the center topped the charts last year, becoming the first player at the position since four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal to win the scoring title and the first center to average over 30 PPG in 40 years – Embiid averaged 30.6.”

3. (transitive)To divide among a number, according to a given proportion.

   “to average a loss”

4. (intransitive)To be, generally or on average.

   “Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build […]”