# average

Pronunciation: say "AV-rij" /ˈæv(ə)ɹɪd͡ʒ/

## Noun

1. A single value that represents a set of numbers, usually the arithmetic mean found by dividing their sum by how many there are.
   - Simple: The number you get by adding several amounts together and dividing by how many there are.
   - _The teacher calculated the class average by summing every score and dividing by the number of students._
   - _Monthly rainfall averages help farmers plan their planting._
6. A figure indicating a player's ability, calculated from their scoring record and similar statistics.
   - Simple: A number that shows how well a player performs, worked out from their scoring record.
   - _The shortstop finished the season with a batting average just over .300._
   - _A bowler's average drops as he concedes fewer runs per wicket._

## Adjective

2. Constituting or relating to the calculated mean of a set of values.
   - Simple: Showing or based on the average of a set of numbers.
   - _The report lists the average rainfall for the region over thirty years._
   - _Engineers used the average load to size the supports._
3. Typical; representing the common or usual case for the group in question.
   - Simple: Being the usual or normal kind, like most others of the same type.
   - _The average commuter spends nearly an hour traveling to work each day._
   - _An average summer here brings warm days and occasional storms._
5. Of ordinary or middling quality, neither especially good nor especially bad, often implying rather mediocre.
   - Simple: Not very good and not very bad. Just ordinary.
   - _She gave an average performance that neither impressed nor disappointed the judges._
   - _The restaurant serves average food at reasonable prices._

## Verb

4. To have or produce a mean value of something, measured over time or across a population.
   - Simple: To have a middle value of something when measured over time or across a group.
   - _These machines average two thousand units a day across the year._
   - _Her investments averaged a six percent return over the decade._
7. To calculate the average of a group of values, especially the arithmetic mean.
   - Simple: To work out the average of a set of numbers by adding them and dividing.
   - _The software averages the sensor readings every minute._
   - _Analysts average the daily prices to smooth out short-term noise._

## Noun

8. A customs duty or similar charge payable on goods being transported. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A small charge or tax to be paid on goods that are being shipped.
9. The labor service a tenant owed to their lord, performed by the tenant's animals, such as carrying wheat or turf. *(obsolete, UK)*
   - Simple: Work that a tenant owed their lord, done using the tenant's animals, like hauling grain or turf.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In shipping and marine insurance, loss of or damage to a ship or its cargo, and the fair sharing of that loss among the parties involved.
- (verb) To divide an amount among a number of parties according to a set proportion.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–8** — English formed the word by adding the suffix -age to avarie, which reached it through Middle French from Old French. That came from Old Italian avaria, which may derive from the Arabic ʕawāriyya ("damaged goods"), based on ʕawār ("fault, blemish, defect").
**Meaning 9** — It comes from Middle English average, from Medieval Latin averagium, from aver ("a beast of burden, or the service owed with it"), from Old English eafor ("the duty to carry goods and messages for one's lord"), plus -age.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/average (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).