Adjacent Words

Ordinary definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OR'DINARY, a. [L. ordinarius.]
1. According to established order; methodical; regular; customary; as the ordinary forms of law or justice.
2. Common; usual.
Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing.
3. Of common rank; not distinguished by superior excellence; as an ordinary reader; men of ordinary judgment.
4. Plain; not handsome; as an ordinary woman; a person of an ordinary form; an ordinary face.
5. Inferior; of little merit; as, the book is an ordinary performance.
6. An ordinary seaman is one not expert or fully skilled.
OR'DINARY, n.
1. In the common and canon law, one who has ordinary or immediate jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge. In England, the bishop of the diocese is commonly the ordinary, and the archbishop is the ordinary of the whole province. The ordinary of assizes and sessions was formerly a deputy of the bishop, appointed to give malefactors their neck-verses. The ordinary of Newgate is one who attends on condemned malefactors to prepare them for death.
2. Settled establishment.
3. Regular price of a meal.
4. A place of eating where the prices are settled.
5. The establishment of persons employed by government to take charge of ships of war laid up in harbors. Hence a ship in ordinary is one laid up under the direction of the master attendant.
In ordinary, in actual and constant service; statedly attending and serving; as a physician or chaplain in ordinary. An embassador in ordinary, is one constantly resident at a foreign court.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability or size or degree; "ordinary everyday objects"; "ordinary decency"; "an ordinary day"; "an ordinary wine" [ant: extraordinary]
2: lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered; "average people"; "the ordinary (or common) man in the street" [syn: average, ordinary] n
1: a judge of a probate court
2: the expected or commonplace condition or situation; "not out of the ordinary"
3: a clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death
4: an early bicycle with a very large front wheel and small back wheel [syn: ordinary, ordinary bicycle]
5: (heraldry) any of several conventional figures used on shields

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural -naries) Etymology: Middle English ordinarie, from Anglo-French & Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin ordinarius, from Latin ordinarius, adjective Date: 14th century 1. a. (1) a prelate exercising original jurisdiction over a specified territory or group (2) a clergyman appointed formerly in England to attend condemned criminals b. a judge of probate in some states of the United States 2. often capitalized the parts of the Mass that do not vary from day to day 3. the regular or customary condition or course of things — usually used in the phrase out of the ordinary 4. a. British a meal served to all comers at a fixed price b. chiefly British a tavern or eating house serving regular meals 5. a common heraldic charge (as the bend) of simple form II. adjective Etymology: Middle English ordinarie, from Latin ordinarius, from ordin-, ordo order Date: 15th century 1. of a kind to be expected in the normal order of events ; routine, usual <an ordinary day> 2. having or constituting immediate or original jurisdiction; also belonging to such jurisdiction 3. a. of common quality, rank, or ability <an ordinary teenager> b. deficient in quality ; poor, inferior <ordinary wine> Synonyms: see common • ordinarily adverb • ordinariness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 a regular, normal, customary, usual (in the ordinary course of events). b boring; commonplace (an ordinary little man). 2 Brit. Law (esp. of a judge) having immediate or ex officio jurisdiction, not deputed. --n. (pl. -ies) 1 Brit. Law a person, esp. a judge, having immediate or ex officio jurisdiction. 2 (the Ordinary) a an archbishop in a province. b a bishop in a diocese. 3 (usu. Ordinary) RC Ch. a those parts of a service, esp. the mass, which do not vary from day to day. b a rule or book laying down the order of divine service. 4 Heraldry a charge of the earliest, simplest, and commonest kind (esp. chief, pale, bend, fess, bar, chevron, cross, saltire). 5 (Ordinary) (also Lord Ordinary) any of the judges of the Court of Session in Scotland, constituting the Outer House. 6 esp. US hist. an early type of bicycle with one large and one very small wheel; a penny-farthing. 7 Brit. hist. a a public meal provided at a fixed time and price at an inn etc. b an establishment providing this. 8 US a tavern. Phrases and idioms: in ordinary Brit. by permanent appointment (esp. to the royal household) (physician in ordinary). in the ordinary way if the circumstances are or were not exceptional. ordinary level Brit. hist. the lowest of the three levels of the GCE examination. ordinary scale = decimal scale. ordinary seaman a sailor of the lowest rank, that below able-bodied seaman. ordinary shares Brit. shares entitling holders to a dividend from net profits (cf. preference shares). out of the ordinary unusual. Derivatives: ordinarily adv. ordinariness n. Etymology: ME f. L ordinarius orderly (as ORDER)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ordinary Or"di*na*ry, a. [L. ordinarius, fr. ordo, ordinis, order: cf. F. ordinaire. See Order.] 1. According to established order; methodical; settled; regular. ``The ordinary forms of law.'' --Addison. 2. Common; customary; usual. --Shak. Method is not less reguisite in ordinary conversation that in writing. --Addison. 3. Of common rank, quality, or ability; not distinguished by superior excellence or beauty; hence, not distinguished in any way; commonplace; inferior; of little merit; as, men of ordinary judgment; an ordinary book. An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way. --Macaulay. Ordinary seaman (Naut.), one not expert or fully skilled, and hence ranking below an able seaman. Syn: Normal; common; usual; customary. Usage: See Normal. -- Ordinary, Common. A thing is common in which many persons share or partake; as, a common practice. A thing is ordinary when it is apt to come round in the regular common order or succession of events.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ordinary Or"di*na*ry, n.; pl. Ordinaries (-r[i^]z). 1. (Law) (a) (Roman Law) An officer who has original jurisdiction in his own right, and not by deputation. (b) (Eng. Law) One who has immediate jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge; also, a deputy of the bishop, or a clergyman appointed to perform divine service for condemned criminals and assist in preparing them for death. (c) (Am. Law) A judicial officer, having generally the powers of a judge of probate or a surrogate. 2. The mass; the common run. [Obs.] I see no more in you than in the ordinary Of nature's salework. --Shak. 3. That which is so common, or continued, as to be considered a settled establishment or institution. [R.] Spain had no other wars save those which were grown into an ordinary. --Bacon. 4. Anything which is in ordinary or common use. Water buckets, wagons, cart wheels, plow socks, and other ordinaries. --Sir W. Scott. 5. A dining room or eating house where a meal is prepared for all comers, at a fixed price for the meal, in distinction from one where each dish is separately charged; a table d'h[^o]te; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a dining room. --Shak. All the odd words they have picked up in a coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of style. --Swift. He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and peddlers and to ordinaries. --Bancroft. 6. (Her.) A charge or bearing of simple form, one of nine or ten which are in constant use. The bend, chevron, chief, cross, fesse, pale, and saltire are uniformly admitted as ordinaries. Some authorities include bar, bend sinister, pile, and others. See Subordinary. In ordinary. (a) In actual and constant service; statedly attending and serving; as, a physician or chaplain in ordinary. An ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resident at a foreign court. (b) (Naut.) Out of commission and laid up; -- said of a naval vessel. Ordinary of the Mass (R. C. Ch.), the part of the Mass which is the same every day; -- called also the canon of the Mass.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Ordinary people or things are normal and not special or different in any way. I strongly suspect that most ordinary people would agree with me... It has 25 calories less than ordinary ice cream... It was just an ordinary weekend for us. = normal ADJ: usu ADJ n 2. Something that is out of the ordinary is unusual or different. The boy's knowledge was out of the ordinary... I've noticed nothing out of the ordinary. = unusual PHRASE: usu v-link PHR

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Customary, settled, established, wonted, every-day, regular, normal, accustomed. 2. Common, usual, frequent, habitual. 3. Common, usual. 4. Mean, inferior, commonplace, indifferent, mediocre. 5. Plain, homely, commonplace. II. n. 1. Eating-house (where a meal is offered at a settled price). 2. Public table, table d'hôte.

Moby Thesaurus

American plan, Attic, Babbittish, European plan, JA, Philistine, a la carte, accepted, accustomed, achievement, alerion, amicus curiae, animal charge, annulet, argent, armorial bearings, armory, arms, assessor, average, azure, banal, bandeau, bar, bar sinister, barmaster, baseborn, baton, bearings, below the salt, bend, bend sinister, besetting, billet, bizarre, blazon, blazonry, boardinghouse, bordure, bourgeois, broad arrow, cadency mark, campy, canton, central, chancellor, chaplet, charge, chaste, chevron, chief, circuit judge, classic, classical, coat of arms, cockatrice, cockney, common, commonplace, conformable, consuetudinary, convention, conventional, coronet, couvert, cover, cover charge, crescent, crest, cross, cross moline, crown, curious, current, customary, demeaning, device, difference, differencing, different, disadvantaged, dominant, dorm, dormitory, doss house, dull, eagle, eccentric, epidemic, ermine, ermines, erminites, erminois, escutcheon, established, everyday, exceptional, expected, extraordinary, fair, falcon, familiar, fess, fess point, field, file, flanch, flat, fleabag, fleur-de-lis, flophouse, frequent, frequentative, fret, fur, fusil, garden, garden variety, garden-variety, garland, general, generally accepted, griffin, guest house, gules, gyron, habitual, hatchment, helmet, heraldic device, high-camp, homely, homespun, honor point, hospice, hostel, hostelry, hotel, household, humble, humdrum, impalement, impaling, in the shade, inescutcheon, inferior, infra dig, inn, insipid, intermediary, intermediate, judge advocate, judge ordinary, junior, jurat, justice in eyre, justice of assize, kitschy, label, lay judge, legal assessor, less, lesser, lion, lodging house, low, low-camp, lowborn, lowbred, lower, lowly, lozenge, mantling, many, many times, marshaling, martlet, mascle, master, matter-of-fact, mean, medial, median, mediocre, medium, metal, middle-class, middle-of-the-road, middling, military judge, minor, moderate, modest, motto, mullet, mundane, natural, no great shakes, nombril point, nonclerical, nondescript, norm, normal, normative, not rare, obtaining, octofoil, odd, of common occurrence, offbeat, oft-repeated, oftentime, ombudsman, or, original, orle, outlandish, pale, paly, pandemic, passable, pean, peasant, peculiar, pedestrian, pension, pheon, picturesque, plain, plastic, plebeian, poetryless, police judge, pop, popular, posada, predominant, predominating, prescribed, prescriptive, presiding judge, prevailing, prevalent, probate judge, prosaic, prosing, prosy, provincial, pub, public, public house, puisne judge, pure, pure and simple, purpure, quaint, quarter, quartering, quotidian, rampant, rare, received, recorder, recurrent, regnant, regular, regulation, reigning, rife, roadhouse, rooming house, rose, routine, rude, ruling, run-of-mine, run-of-the-mill, running, sable, saltire, scutcheon, second rank, second string, secondary, self-service, service, servile, set, shabby-genteel, shield, simple, singular, so so, spread eagle, standard, status quo, stereotyped, stock, strange, striking, sub, subaltern, subject, subordinary, subordinate, subservient, suburban, tavern, tenne, the common, the commonplace, the normal, the ordinary, the usual, thick-coming, third rank, third string, third-estate, time-honored, tincture, tiresome, torse, traditional, tressure, typical, uncommon, unconventional, underprivileged, undistinguished, unembellished, uneventful, unexceptional, unexpected, unfamiliar, ungenteel, unicorn, unidealistic, unimaginative, unimpassioned, uninspired, unique, universal, unnoteworthy, unpoetic, unpretentious, unrefined, unremarkable, unromantic, unspectacular, unusual, usual, vair, vapid, vernacular, vert, vice-chancellor, vulgar, weird, widespread, wonted, workaday, workday, wreath, yale