average

average [av′ər ij, av′rij]

n.

[altered (by assoc. with ME average, money rent paid in place of service by the tenant with his horses < aver, draft horse) < OFr avarie, damage to ship or goods, mooring charges < OIt avaria < Ar ʿ awār, damaged goods; order of main sense development (in AVERAGE n. ), 6a, 6c, 1, 2, etc.]

1. the numerical result obtained by dividing the sum of two or more quantities by the number of quantities; an arithmetic mean

2.

a) GRADE-POINT AVERAGE

b) an approximation of this [an average of C in French]

3. usual or normal kind, amount, quality, rate, etc. [an intelligence above the average]

4. a number or value of a set of values carefully defined to typify the set, as a median or mode

☆ 5. BATTING AVERAGE

6. Maritime Law

a) a loss incurred by damage to a ship at sea or to its cargo

b) an incurring of such loss

c) the equitable division of such loss among the interested parties

d) a charge arising from such loss

e) any of various small charges paid by the master of a ship, as for pilotage or towage

adj.

1. constituting an average [the average speed is high]

2. intermediate in value, rate, etc.; hence, normal or ordinary [an average student]

vi.

averaged, averaging

1. to be or amount to on an average [the children average six years of age]

2. to buy or sell additional fixed amounts, as of shares of stock, at lower or higher prices over time so as to get a better average price: usually with down or up

3. to invest, as in shares of stock, fixed amounts of money at regular intervals so as to buy more at lower prices and less at higher prices: usually in phrase dollar (cost) averaging

vt.

1. to calculate the average or mean of

2. to do, take, etc. on an average [to average six hours of sleep a night]

3. to divide proportionately among more than two [they averaged the loss among themselves]

SYN.- NORMAL

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average out

to arrive at an average eventually

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on the average or on average

as an average quantity, rate, etc.

SYN.- AVERAGE refers to the result obtained by dividing a sum by the number of quantities added [the average of 7, 9, 17 is 33 ÷ 3, or 11 ] and in extended use is applied to the usual or ordinary kind, instance, etc.; MEAN¹ commonly designates a figure intermediate between two extremes [the mean temperature for a day with a high of 56° and a low of 34° is 45° ] and figuratively implies moderation [the golden mean]; the MEDIAN is the middle number or point in a series arranged in order of size [the median grade in the group 50, 55, 85, 88, 92 is 85; the average is 74 ]; NORM implies a standard of average performance for a given group [a child below the norm for his age in reading comprehension ]