mediocrity

[ mee-dee-ok-ri-tee ]

noun

, plural me·di·oc·ri·ties.

1. the state or quality of being mediocre.
2. mediocre ability or accomplishment.
3. a mediocre person.

mediocrity

/ ˌmɛd-; ˌmiːdɪˈɒkrɪtɪ /

noun

1. the state or quality of being mediocre
2. a mediocre person or thing

Word History and Origins

Origin of mediocrity¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English mediocrite, from Middle French mediocrite, from Latin mediocritāt-, stem of mediocritās “middle state, moderation”; equivalent to mediocre + -ity

Example Sentences

Whereas discomfort often fuels motivation and innovation, comfort can fuel complacency and mediocrity.

From Digiday

It’s a ritual that has become habit for this Boston team, one of those celebratory routines that seem to signal some level of camaraderie — or at least that signal a team is far from resigned to six months of angsty mediocrity.

From Washington Post

“Californians are tired of having a governor whose operating themes are hypocrisy, self-interest, half truths and mediocrity,” Ose said in a statement announcing his run.

From Washington Post

Earlier this century, ridiculing Chris Martin seemed well on its way to becoming an Olympic sport, but eventually all of the self-appointed deputies holding Coldplay responsible for its milky mediocrity seemed to forget that the band ever existed.

From Washington Post

That report claimed that the nation's public schools were mired in “a rising tide of mediocrity” because they were too easy.

From Washington Post

A “komitetchik par excellence,” a man of “outstanding mediocrity,” and “the grave digger of the revolution.”

From The Daily Beast

If the point was to create a paean to mediocrity, then Linklater has made maybe the definitive work on the subject.

From The Daily Beast

Does the mediocrity of the job market mean that America no longer needs people who deal with abstractions?

From The Daily Beast

Both the Giants and the Jets descended into mediocrity, a situation epitomized by the “Miracle In The Meadowlands” in 1978.

From The Daily Beast

While the Giants receded into two decades of mediocrity, the Jets took over New York.

From The Daily Beast

These last animals, the largest of which is below mediocrity, seem confined to the regions of South America.

From Project Gutenberg

He was angry and impatient with the "cavilling spirit of mediocrity," that takes pleasure in the lapses of "the mighty-souled."

From Project Gutenberg

She wore an exquisite white frock but is not herself a pretty girl though her grace uplifts somewhat her mediocrity of appearance.

From Project Gutenberg

He would have suffered in spontaneity, vivacity, originality, and quietly taken his anchorage in the sleepy haven of mediocrity.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet Macaulay Carvel was not to be despised on account of his high-class mediocrity.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• normality