Mean and Ordinary

Similar meaning words

Mean adjective - Of little or less value or merit.

Usage example: it's no mean feat to memorize that long poem

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Ordinary is a synonym for mean in lowly topic. In some cases you can use "Ordinary" instead an adjective "Mean", when it comes to topics like poor.

Nearby Words: means, meaning, meanness, meant, meanly

Ordinary adjective - Being of the type that is encountered in the normal course of events.

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Mean is a synonym for ordinary in common topic. Sometimes you can use "Mean" instead an adjective "Ordinary", if it concerns topics such as average.

I mean, why use a common, ordinary word like 'cock', when I could tell Al to 'go fish for my one-eyed, purple-headed, blue-veined trouser trout' instead?

Source: Wrestling / Mick Foley
They're completely ordinary... and no, we don't mean as in the Ordinary High-School Student, or the Badass Normal.

Source: Those Two Guys
You'll also notice a subtle difference in the way sympathetic characters use the word "human" as a blanket term for both mutants and ordinary humans, but occasionally use it to mean just ordinary humans when it's clear from context they're not implying a value judgment.

Source: Comicbook / X-Men

Cite this Source

Ordinary and Mean. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/mean/ordinary

Mean & Ordinary. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/mean/ordinary>.

Ordinary or Mean. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/mean/ordinary.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "mean" and "ordinary" have occurred on timeline