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Regular vs Commonplace - What's the difference?

regular | commonplace |

As adjectives the difference between regular and commonplace

is that regular is while commonplace is ordinary; having no remarkable characteristics.

As an adverb regular

is regularly.

As a noun commonplace is

a platitude or.

As a verb commonplace is

to make a commonplace book.

regular

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (Christianity) Bound by religious rule; belonging to a monastic or religious order (often as opposed to (secular)).
  • * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, page 201:
  • A quarter of a million strong in 1680, the clergy was only half as large in 1789. The unpopular regular clergy were the worst affected.
  • Having a constant pattern; showing evenness of form or appearance.
  • (geometry, of a polygon) Having all sides of the same length, and all (corresponding) angles of the same size
  • (geometry, of a polyhedron) Whose faces are all congruent regular polygons, equally inclined to each other.
  • Demonstrating a consistent set of rules; showing order, evenness of operation or occurrence.
  • * 2011 , (AL Kennedy), The Guardian , 12 Apr 2011:
  • April may be the cruellest month, but I am planning to render it civilised and to take my antibiotics in a regular manner.
  • (now, rare) Well-behaved, orderly; restrained (of a lifestyle etc.).
  • Happening at constant (especially short) intervals.
  • (chiefly, US) Having the expected characteristics or appearances; normal, ordinary, standard.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}
  • (chiefly, military) Permanently organised; being part of a set professional body of troops.
  • Having bowel movements or menstrual periods at constant intervals in the expected way.
  • (colloquial) Exemplary; excellent example of; utter, downright.
  • Belonging to a monastic order or community.
  • regular clergy, in distinction from the secular clergy
  • (botany, zoology) Having all the parts of the same kind alike in size and shape.
  • a regular''' flower; a '''regular sea urchin
  • (crystallography) isometric
  • (snowboarding) Riding with the left foot forward. BBC Sport, "Sochi 2014: A jargon-busting guide to the halfpipe", 11 February 2014
  • (analysis, not comparable, of a Borel measure) Such that every set in its domain is both outer regular and inner regular.
  • Synonyms

    * (with constant frequency) uniform * (normal) normal * (grammar) weak (verbs) * (frequent) steady

    Antonyms

    * (with constant frequency) irregular * (normal) irregular * (obeying rules) irregular * (grammar) irregular, strong (verbs) * (snowboarding) goofy

    Coordinate terms

    * (snowboarding) switch

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A member of the British Army (as opposed to a member of the Territorial Army or Reserve).
  • A frequent, routine visitor to an establishment.
  • Bartenders usually know their regulars by name.
  • A frequent customer, client or business partner.
  • This gentleman was one of the architect's regulars .
  • (Canada) A coffee with one cream and one sugar.
  • Anything that is normal or standard.
  • * 2011 , Jamie MacLennan, ZhaoHui Tang, Bogdan Crivat, Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008
  • You separate the marbles by color until you have four groups, but then you notice that some of the marbles are regulars , some are shooters, and some are peewees.

    References

    * * ----

    commonplace

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Ordinary; having no remarkable characteristics.
  • * 1824 , Sir (Walter Scott), , ch. 7:
  • "This Mr. Tyrrel," she said, in a tone of authoritative decision, "seems after all a very ordinary sort of person, quite a commonplace man."
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.}}
  • * 1911 , (w), (Under Western Eyes) , ch. 1:
  • I could get hold of nothing but of some commonplace phrases, those futile phrases that give the measure of our impotence before each other's trials.

    Synonyms

    * routine * undistinguished * unexceptional * See also

    Antonyms

    * distinguished * inimitable * unique

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A platitude or .
  • * 1899 , , Active Service , ch. 17:
  • Finally he began to mutter some commonplaces which meant nothing particularly.
  • * 1910 , , His Hour , ch. 4:
  • And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.
  • Something that is ordinary.
  • * 1891 , , "A Case of Identity" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes :
  • "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence."
  • A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace .
  • A commonplace book.
  • Verb

    (commonplac)
  • To make a commonplace book.
  • To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.
  • * Felton
  • I do not apprehend any difficulty in collecting and commonplacing an universal history from the historians.
  • (obsolete) To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.
  • * 1910 , , His Hour , ch. 4:
  • And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.
    (Francis Bacon)