Average: The Middle Number and the Middling Compliment
An average is a typical value worked out from several figures. Used as an adjective it means ordinary, which is why calling a meal average is not praise.
Average started as a term of arithmetic and drifted into everyday judgement. The number sense is neutral. The adjective is not: telling someone their work is average is a polite way of saying it is nothing special.
- A typical value from a set (noun). *The average was 62.*
- Ordinary, unremarkable (adjective). *An average performance.*
- To work out or amount to (verb). *Sales averaged 300 a week.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | average | Above the average. |
| Adjective | average | An average height. |
| Verb | average | He averages ten miles a day. |
| Phrase | on average | On average, twice a month. |
| Related | mean | The arithmetic mean. |
How it is used in a sentence
- On average, the journey takes fifty minutes.On average opens a sentence about typical cases.
- She is an above-average student.Hyphenated before the noun.
- The team averaged two goals a game.Verb sense — no article needed.
Average, mean, median and mode
- Mean — add everything up and divide by the count
- Median — the middle value once the figures are in order
- Mode — the value that occurs most often
- Average — in ordinary speech this means the mean, but it can cover all three
The word came into English through shipping. Medieval merchants used *avaria* for the loss on damaged cargo, a cost shared out among everyone with goods aboard. Dividing a loss fairly between parties is exactly the arithmetic that later became the average.
Is average always the mean?
In casual use, yes. In statistics you should name which one you mean, because a skewed set can put the mean far from the median.
Is calling something average rude?
It is not an insult, but it is faint praise. Ordinary and unremarkable are what listeners hear.