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/, [mi.dɪˈɑk.ɹɪ.ɾi]

mediocrity (countable and uncountable, plural mediocrities)

2. (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^[1]:

     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.

4. (countable) A person with mediocre abilities or achievements.

   populated with mediocrities

   surrounded by mediocrities

6. (archaic) The quality of being intermediate between two extremes; a mean.
8. (obsolete) A middle course of action; moderation, balance.
   • 1609, Richard Carew, “The Second Booke”, in The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC, folio 117, verso:

     Sundrie other Gent[lemen] reſt beholden to this hundred, for their dvvellings, vvho, in an enuiable mediocritie of fortune, do happilie poſſeſſe themſelues, and communicate their ſufficient means to the ſeruice of their prince, the good of their neighbours, and the bettering of their ovvn eſtate: […]

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     In adversity I wish for prosperity, and in prosperity I am afraid of adversity. What mediocrity may be found?

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