Webster's English Dictionary

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average

1. av.er.age \'av-(*-)rij\ n [modif. of MF avarie damage to ship or cargo, 
   fr. OIt avaria, fr. A]r 'awa-ri-yah damaged merchandise 1: sundry petty 
   charges regularly defrayed by the master of a ship and usu.  included in 
   the freight 2a: a less than total loss sustained by a ship or cargo  2b: a 
   charge arising from damage caused by sea perils customarily distributed 
   equitably and proportionately among all chargeable with it 3a: a single 
   value (as a mean, mode, median) that summarizes or represents the general 
   significance of a set of unequal values 3b: MEAN  4a: an estimation of or 
   approximation to an arithmetic mean  4b: something typical of a group, 
   class, or series  5: a ratio (usu. a rate per thousand) of successful tries 
   to total tries (batting ~ of .303}proximately the quotient obtained by 
   dividing the sum total of a set of figures by the number of figures; MEAN 
   may be the simple average or it may represent value midway between two 
   extremes {a high of 70 and a low of 50 give a mean of 60} MEDIAN applies to 
   the value that represents the point at which there are as many instances 
   above as there are below {average of a group of persons earning 3, 4, 5, 8, 
   and 10 dollars a day is 6 dollars, whereas the median is 5 dollars} NORM 
   means the computed or estimated average of performance of a significantly 
   large group, class, or grade {scores about the norm for 5th grade 
   arithmetic} SYN syn MEAN, MEDIAN, NORM: AVERAGE is exactly or ap 
2. average aj 1: equaling an arithmetic mean  2a: approximating or 
   resembling an arithmetic mean in being about midway b etween extremes 2b: 
   not out of the ordinary : COMMON  of a color  2c: medial in value  - 
   av.er.age.ly av
3. average vi 1: to be or come to an average {the gain averaged out to 20 
   percen t} 2: to buy or sell additional shares or commodities to obtain a 
   more favorable average price 1: to do, get, or have on the average or as 
   an average sum or quantity  2: to find the arithmetic mean of (a series of 
   unequal quantities)  3a: to bring toward the average  3b: to divide among a 
   number proportionately