mediocrity

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Average capacity or worth

Nouns

1. mediocrity, middle course, moderate degree, medial standard, moderate or average circumstances; normality, average, golden mean; moderation, temperance, respectability; middle classes, bourgeoisie. See inferiority, insipidity.

2. mediocrity, nobody, nothing special; silent majority. Informal, small potatoes, no great shakes. Slang, ham fat. See unimportance.

Verbs — jog on, go or get on tolerably, fairly, or quietly; get along, get by, pass [in the dark], muddle through. Slang, underwhelm.

Adjectives — mediocre, ordinary, commonplace, everyday; moderate, middling, normal, average, mean, medium, medial; indifferent, passable, tolerable, comme ci comme ça, presentable, bearable, better than nothing; second- or third-class; respectable, not bad, fair, so-so, second-rate, run of the mill or mine, of poor quality; pretty well or good; good or well enough; middle-class, bourgeois. Informal, no great shakes, fair to middling, nothing to write home about, namby-pamby, of sorts. Slang, no ball of fire.

Quotations — The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was ( Thomas Carlyle), The only sin is mediocrity (Martha Graham), Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them (Joseph Heller), Blessed are those who have no talent! (Emerson), Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to be as mediocre as possible (Margaret Mead).

Antonyms, see perfection, superiority.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Ordinariness]

Syn. commonplaceness, commonness; see normality 1 .

2. [A mediocre person]

Syn. upstart, cipher, nonentity; Tom, Dick, and Harry; see citizen , commoner , nobody 2 .