mediocrity

English

Etymology

From Middle French médiocrité, from Latin mediocritās, from mediocris; by surface analysis, mediocre +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /miː.dɪˈɒk.ɹɪ.ti/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /mi.dɪˈɑk.ɹɪ.ti/, [mi.dɪˈɑk.ɹɪ.ɾi]

Noun

mediocrity (countable and uncountable, plural mediocrities)

1. (uncountable) The condition of being mediocre; having only an average degree of quality, skills etc.; no better than standard.

   Synonym: middlingness

   Coordinate terms: midness (denoting low quality in 21st-century slang); inadequacy, insufficiency, poorness; excellence

   Flexibility is good, but a tolerance for mediocrity carried far enough impairs operational capacity.

   • 2021 March 28, Phil McNulty, “Albania 0-2 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     England captain Harry Kane lifted the mediocrity of an attritional first half on a slow surface when he scored his 33rd goal for his country, a superbly guided diving header from Luke Shaw's cross seven minutes before the interval.

2. (countable) A person with mediocre abilities or achievements.

   populated with mediocrities

   surrounded by mediocrities

3. (now rare) The quality of being intermediate between two extremes; a mean.
4. (obsolete) A middle course of action; moderation, balance.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , New York Review Books 2001, p.273:

     In adversity I wish for prosperity, and in prosperity I am afraid of adversity. What mediocrity may be found?

Derived terms

• mediocrity principle

 

Related terms

• mean
• median
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• mediocre
• medium

 

Translations

condition of being mediocre

• Afrikaans: middelmatigheid
• Armenian: միջակություն (hy) (miǰakutʻyun)
• Belarusian: пасрэднасць f (pasrednascʹ)
• Bulgarian: посредственост (bg) f (posredstvenost)
• Catalan: mediocritat f
• Czech: průměrnost n
• Dutch: middelmatigheid (nl) f
• Estonian: keskpärasus, keskpära
• Finnish: keskinkertaisuus (fi), keskivertous
• French: médiocrité (fr) f
• Galician: mediocridade (gl) f
• German: Mittelmäßigkeit f, Mittelmaß (de) n
• Greek: μετριότητα (el) f (metriótita)
• Irish: lagmheasarthacht f
• Italian: mediocrità (it) f
• Japanese: 平凡 (ja) (heibon), 凡庸 (ja) (bon'yō)
• Macedonian: медиокрите́т m (mediokritét), про́сечност f (prósečnost)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: middelmådighet

• Polish: mierność (pl) f, przeciętność (pl) f
• Portuguese: mediocridade (pt) f
• Russian: посре́дственность (ru) f (posrédstvennostʹ), зауря́дность (ru) f (zaurjádnostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: медиокрѝте̄т m, медѝокрис m

  Roman: mediokrìtēt (sh) m, medìokris (sh) m

• Spanish: mediocridad (es) f, medianía (es) f
• Swedish: medelmåttlighet c
• Tagalog: dampat, kadampatan, karampatan
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• iridectomy