mediocrity

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /miː.dɪˈɒk.ɹɪ.ti/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /mi.dɪˈɑk.ɹɪ.ti/,

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:

     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?

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