Definition of mediocre
: of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ordinary, so-so
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Examples of mediocre in a Sentence
- They sensed that mediocre students like Roosevelt really did possess a set of virtues that needed to be protected and cherished. —David Brooks, New York Times Book Review, 6 Nov. 2005
- Of course, it could be that what Wesley has been through steeled his nerves and transformed him from a mediocre point guard into one of the fiercest shooters in the league with the game on the line. —Chad Millman, ESPN, 14 May 2001
- In short, they'd have to build a first-rate health-care system out of the shantytown's mediocre one—a system that would administer those drugs reliably and keep the patients' spirits up, because the second-line drugs are weak and have unpleasant side effects, which a patient has to endure for as much as two years. —Tracy Kidder, New Yorker, 10 July 2000
The dinner was delicious, but the dessert was mediocre.
The carpenter did a mediocre job.
The critics dismissed him as a mediocre actor.
Recent Examples of mediocre from the Web
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Scheib, a right-hander, 6 feet 1 inches tall and 190 pounds, became a mainstay of the A’s pitching staff as a starter and reliever and won 45 games for teams that were usually mediocre or worse.
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To win, be mediocre at a bunch of things rather than great at any one.
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Buyers need more options than something very big or rather mid-sized and mediocre.
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Somebody has been really good and others have been mediocre depending on the game.
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The Warbler raises concern just by offering these items—an apparent greatest hits of the banal bar food so many mediocre spots on the strip traffic in.
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Enlisting Europe to tighten sanctions could put a risk premium into oil prices, a danger for a global economy where retail-sales growth has been mediocre.
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In 2018, the mediocre-to-good wide receivers are getting paid the kind of money that has been reserved for good-to-great players at that position.
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From his raw regular-season statistics – 57 receptions, 789 yards – Jeffery would seem to have had a mediocre season, especially for a No. 1 wide receiver.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mediocre.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Why being halfway up a mountain is mediocre
One of the things that is remarkable about mediocre is the extent to which it has retained its meaning over the course of more than four centuries of continual use. The word, when used as an adjective, has changed very little, if at all, in its meaning since it was used in a 1586 book titled The English Secretorie (our earliest known evidence): “Mediocre, a meane betwixt high and low, vehement and slender, too much and too little as we saye. . . .” The word comes to English from the Middle French, which took it from a Latin word meaning “halfway up a mountain” (mediocris). The noun form of mediocre is mediocrity.
Origin and Etymology of mediocre
Middle French, from Latin mediocris, from medius middle + Old Latin ocris stony mountain; akin to Latin acer sharp — more at edge
NEW! Time Traveler
First Known Use: circa 1586
in the meaning defined above
See Words from the same yearmediocre Synonyms
Synonyms
bad, bargain-basement, bum, cheap, cheapjack, cheesy, coarse, common, cut-rate, execrable, gimcrack, inferior, junky, lousy, low-grade, low-rent, miserable, poor, rotten, rubbishy, schlock (or schlocky), second-rate, shoddy, sleazy, terrible, trashy, trumpery, wretched;
Antonyms
excellent, fine, first-class, first-rate, good, high-grade, superior, top-notch;
Related Words
useless, valueless, worthless;
indifferent, lackluster, second-class;
flashy, garish, gaudy, glitzy, kitsch, kitschy, meretricious, ostentatious, showy, splashy, swank (or swanky), tawdry;
counterfeit, fake, phony (also phoney), sham;
MEDIOCRE Defined for English Language Learners
MEDIOCRE Defined for Kids
Definition of mediocre for Students
: not very good
- That restaurant is just mediocre.
Learn More about mediocre
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See words that rhyme with mediocre Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for mediocre Spanish Central: Translation of mediocre Nglish: Translation of mediocre for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of mediocre for Arabic speakers
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