Average vs Common - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between average and common

is that average is financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss while common is mutual good, shared by more than one.

As adjectives the difference between average and common

is that average is constituting or relating to the average while common is mutual; shared by more than one.

As verbs the difference between average and common

is that average is to compute the arithmetic mean of while common is to communicate (something).

average

English

(wikipedia average)

Noun

(en noun)

(legal, marine) Financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.

* 2008 , Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, Richard Schaffer, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, International Business Law and Its Environment , page 219,

Historically, the courts have allowed a general average' claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.The court awarded the carrier the general '''average''' claim. It noted that “a ship?s master should not be discouraged from taking timely action to avert a disaster,” and need not be in actual peril to claim general ' average .

Customs duty or similar charge payable on transported goods.

Proportional or equitable distribution of financial expense.

(mathematics) The arithmetic mean.

* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty

, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}

The average of 10, 20 and 24 is (10 + 20 + 24)/3 = 18.

(statistics) Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.

(sports) An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.

(UK, legal, obsolete) The service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.

(UK, in the plural) In the corn trade, the medial price of the several kinds of grain in the principal corn markets.

Usage notes

* (sense) The term average' may refer to the statistical mean, median or mode of a batch, sample, or distribution, or sometimes any other measure of central tendency. Statisticians and responsible news sources are careful to use whichever of these specific terms is appropriate. In common usage, ' average refers to the arithmetic mean. It is, however, a common rhetorical trick to call the most favorable of mean, median and mode the "average" depending on the interpretation of a set of figures that the speaker or writer wants to promote.

Coordinate terms

* (measure of central tendency) arithmetic mean, geometric mean, harmonic mean, mean, median, mode

Derived terms

* above average * average atomic mass * averager * batting average * below average * bowling average * earned run average * general average * grade point average * height above average terrain * law of averages * moving average * on average * particular average * rolling average * slugging average * subaverage * time average * weighted average * weighted-average cost of capital

Adjective

(en adjective)

(not comparable) Constituting or relating to the average.

The average age of the participants was 18.5.

Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.

I soon found I was only an average chess player.

Typical.

* 2002 , Andy Turnbull, The Synthetic Beast: When Corporations Come to Life , page 12,

We tend to think that exceptionally attractive men and women are outstanding but the fact is that they are more average than most.

* 2004 , Deirdre V. Lovecky, Different Minds: Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome, and Other Learning Deficits , page 75,

Things that never would occur to more average children, with and without AD/HD, will give these children nightmares.

* '2009'', Susan T. Fiske, ''Social Beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology , page 73,

In other words, highly attractive people like highly attractive communicators and more average' people like more ' average communicators.

The average family will not need the more expensive features of this product.

(informal) Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor.

* 2002 , Andy Slaven, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002 , page 228,

The graphics, sound, and most everything else are all very average . However, the main thing that brings this game down are the controls - they feel very clumsy and awkward at times.

* 2005 , Brad Knight, Laci Peterson: The Whole Story: Laci, Scott, and Amber's Deadly Love Triangle , page 308,

But what the vast majority of the populace doesn?t realise is the fact that he?s only on TV because he became famous from one case, Winona Ryder's, which, by the way, he lost because he?s only a very average attorney.

* 2009 , Carn Tiernan, On the Back of the Other Side , page 62,

In the piano stool there was a stack of music, mostly sentimental ballads intended to be sung by people with very average voices accompanied by not very competent pianists.

Synonyms

* (constituting or relating to the average) mean; expectation (colloquial) * (neither very good nor very bad) mediocre, medium, middle-ranking, middling, unremarkable, so-so, * (typical) conventional, normal, regular, standard, typical, usual, bog-standard (slang) * ordinary, uninspiring

Antonyms

* (neither very good nor very bad) extraordinary

Derived terms

* average bear * average Joe * averagely * averageness

Verb

(averag)

(informal) To compute the arithmetic mean of.

If you average 10, 20 and 24, you get 18.

Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of.

The daily high temperature last month averaged 15°C.

To divide among a number, according to a given proportion.

to average a loss

To be, generally or on average.

* 1872 Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds

Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build

Derived terms

* average down * average out * average up * averageable * unaveraged

common

English

(wikipedia common)

Adjective

(en-adj)

Mutual; shared by more than one.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke

, title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.}}

Found in large numbers or in a large quantity.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=Lee A. Groat, title=Gemstones

, volume=100, issue=2, page=128, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)}}

Simple, ordinary or vulgar.

* Washington Irving

the honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life

* Shakespeare

This fact was infamous / And ill beseeming any common man, / Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.

* A. Murphy

above the vulgar flight of common souls

She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.

(grammar) In some languages, particularly Germanic languages, of the gender originating from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine categories of nouns.

Of or pertaining to uncapitalized nouns in English, i.e., common nouns vs. proper nouns.

Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal, i.e., common name vs. scientific name.

(obsolete) Profane; polluted.

* Bible, Acts x. 15

What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common .

(obsolete) Given to lewd habits; prostitute.

* L'Estrange

a dame who herself was common

Synonyms

* (mutual ): mutual, shared * (usual ): normal, ordinary, standard, usual * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): widespread * See also

Antonyms

* (mutual ): personal, individual * (usual ): rare, unusual, uncommon * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): few and far between, rare, uncommon

Noun

(en noun)

Mutual good, shared by more than one.

A tract of land in common ownership; common land.

* {{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)

, title= The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common .}}

The people; the community.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

the weal o' the common

(label) The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To communicate (something).

* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans, Bible , Luke XXII:

Then entred Satan into Judas, whose syr name was iscariot (which was of the nombre off the twelve) and he went his waye, and commened with the hye prestes and officers, how he wolde betraye hym vnto them.

(obsolete) To converse, talk.

* , II.ix:

So long as Guyon with her commoned , / Vnto the ground she cast her modest eye [...].

* Grafton

Embassadors were sent upon both parts, and divers means of entreaty were commoned of.

(obsolete) To have sex.

(obsolete) To participate.

(Sir Thomas More)

(obsolete) To have a joint right with others in common ground.

(Johnson)

(obsolete) To board together; to eat at a table in common.

Derived terms

* common name * commonality * common dolphin * commoner * common gender * the common good * common noun * common-or-garden * commonplace * commons * common radish * commonsense * common touch * House of Commons * in common

Statistics

* 1000 English basic words