garden-variety

[ gahr-dn-vuh-rahy-i-tee ]

adjective

1. common, usual, or ordinary; unexceptional.

Word History and Origins

Origin of garden-variety¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Idioms and Phrases

Ordinary, common, as in I don't want anything special in a VCR—the garden variety will do . This term alludes to a common plant as opposed to a specially bred hybrid. [ Colloquial ; 1920]

Example Sentences

Musk deprioritized posts with links because he doesn’t want people clicking away from X. They already weren’t clicking, but the fiction that they might click has had a magnetic pull on journalists and garden-variety influencers who see the platform as one spoke in a wheel of content distribution.

From Slate

Beck and Woods don’t have to dream up something alien when these kinds of garden-variety predators are common.

From Los Angeles Times

At times, this approaches the tone of your garden-variety L.A. surfer bro, spouting anecdotes about the benefits of ayahuasca.

From Los Angeles Times

This is not garden-variety hypocrisy, however.

From Salon

Like other docuseries with a knack for being in the right place at the right time, Goode and Cunningham are deeply insinuated in Haddix’s life as the situation evolves from garden-variety chimps in cowboy hats “strange” to “taking a kidnapping turn.”

From Salon