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a quantity, rating, or the like that represents or approximates an arithmetic mean:
Her golf average is in the 90s. My average in science has gone from B to C this semester.
a typical amount, rate, degree, etc.; norm.
Statistics. arithmetic mean.
Mathematics. a quantity intermediate to a set of quantities.
Commerce.

a charge paid by the master of a ship for such services as pilotage or towage.
an expense, partial loss, or damage to a ship or cargo.
the incidence of such an expense or loss to the owners or their insurers.
an equitable apportionment among all the interested parties of such an expense or loss.
Compare general average, particular average.

of or relating to an average; estimated by average; forming an average:
The average rainfall there is 180 inches.
typical; common; ordinary:
The average secretary couldn’t handle such a workload. His grades were nothing special, only average.
to find an average value for (a variable quantity); reduce to a mean:
We averaged the price of milk in five neighborhood stores.
(of a variable quantity) to have as its arithmetic mean:
Wheat averages 56 pounds to a bushel.
to do or have on the average:
He averages seven hours of sleep a night.
to have or show an average:
to average as expected.
average down, to purchase more of a security or commodity at a lower price to reduce the average cost of one’s holdings.
average out,

to come out of a security or commodity transaction with a profit or without a loss.
to reach an average or other figure:
His taxes should average out to about a fifth of his income.

average up, to purchase more of a security or commodity at a higher price to take advantage of a contemplated further rise in prices.
on the / an average, usually; typically:
She can read 50 pages an hour, on the average.
Contemporary Examples

Not much initially—about $2 less a month for the average recipient.
As GOP Sinks Plan B, Obama Should Tune Out His Own Party’s Doubters Robert Shrum December 20, 2012

All those cardinals and clerics get through an average of 73.7 liters each a year.
Beer Countries vs. Wine Countries Clive Irving December 6, 2014

“We have to be approachable to the average American family,” GOP Rep. Joseph Cao says of the Republican Party.
The Only Republican to Vote for Health Care Benjamin Sarlin September 15, 2009

Was this deliberate strategy, to attack children who were even more defenseless than the average child?
Alex Gibney’s ‘Mea Maxima Culpa’: Sex, Lies, and the Catholic Church Michael Moynihan February 3, 2013

Not so Montana, where the average resident spends only $27,000 per year.
Who Spends the Most? Anneli Rufus November 24, 2010

Historical Examples

I guess I could do it and get away with it as well as the average.
K Mary Roberts Rinehart

The men are taller than the average, and the women, relatively, taller than the men.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

You read them to the end because they are true pictures of the lives of average people.
Mary Ware in Texas Annie F. Johnston

They average about the same as they do in anything else, mostly good, I think.
Thoroughbreds W. A. Fraser

The salaries received by teachers do not average high in Norway.
The School System of Norway David Allen Anderson

noun
the typical or normal amount, quality, degree, etc: above average in intelligence
Also called arithmetic mean. the result obtained by adding the numbers or quantities in a set and dividing the total by the number of members in the set: the average of 3, 4, and 8 is 5
(of a continuously variable ratio, such as speed) the quotient of the differences between the initial and final values of the two quantities that make up the ratio: his average over the journey was 30 miles per hour
(maritime law)

a loss incurred or damage suffered by a ship or its cargo at sea
the equitable apportionment of such loss among the interested parties

(often pl) (stock exchange) a simple or weighted average of the prices of a selected group of securities computed in order to facilitate market comparisons
on average, on the average, on an average, usually; typically: on average, he goes twice a week
adjective
usual or typical
mediocre or inferior: his performance was only average
constituting a numerical average: the average age, an average speed
approximately typical of a range of values: the average contents of a matchbox
verb
(transitive) to obtain or estimate a numerical average of
(transitive) to assess the general quality of
(transitive) to perform or receive a typical number of: to average eight hours’ work a day
(transitive) to divide up proportionately: they averaged the profits among the staff
(transitive) to amount to or be on average: the children averaged 15 years of age
(intransitive) (stock exchange) to purchase additional securities in a holding whose price has fallen (average down) or risen (average up) in anticipation of a speculative profit after further increases in price
n.

late 15c., “financial loss incurred through damage to goods in transit,” from French avarie “damage to ship,” and Italian avaria; a word from 12c. Mediterranean maritime trade (cf. Spanish averia; other Germanic forms, Dutch avarij, German haferei, etc., also are from Romanic languages), of uncertain origin. Sometimes traced to Arabic ‘arwariya “damaged merchandise,” but this might as easily be a borrowing of the word from the Franks. Meaning shifted to “equal sharing of such loss by the interested parties.” Transferred sense of “statement of a medial estimate” is first recorded 1735. The mathematical extension is from 1755.
adj.

1770; see average (n.).
v.

1769, from average (n.). Related: Averaged; averaging.

average av·er·age (āv’ər-ĭj, āv’rĭj)
n.

A number that typifies a set of numbers of which it is a function.

See arithmetic mean.

An intermediate level or degree.

adj.

Of, relating to, or constituting an average.

Being intermediate between extremes, as on a scale.

v. av·er·aged, av·er·ag·ing, av·er·ag·es

To calculate the average of.

To do or have an average of.

To distribute proportionately, as over a period of time.

average
(āv’ər-ĭj)
A number, especially the arithmetic mean, that is derived from and considered typical or representative of a set of numbers. Compare arithmetic mean, median, mode.

A single number that represents a set of numbers. Means, medians, and modes are kinds of averages; usually, however, the term average refers to a mean.