adj.
- with no distinctive features; normal or usual.
▸not interesting or exceptional.
- (of a judge, archbishop, or bishop) exercising authority by virtue of office and not by deputation.
n.
(pl. ordinaries)
- Law, Brit. a judge exercising authority by virtue of office and not by deputation.
-
(the Ordinary)
a clergyman, such as an archbishop in a province or a bishop in a diocese, with immediate jurisdiction.
-
(Ordinary)
those parts of a Roman Catholic service, especially the Mass, which do not vary from day to day.
▸a rule or book laying down the order of divine service.
- Heraldry any of the simplest principal charges used in coats of arms.
- archaic a meal provided at a fixed time and price at an inn.
- historical, chiefly N. Amer. a penny-farthing bicycle.
Phrase
- in ordinary
Brit. (in titles) by permanent appointment, especially to the royal household. - out of the ordinary
unusual.
Derivative
- ordinarily adv.
- ordinariness n.
Etymology
ME: the noun partly via OFr.; the adjective from L. ordinarius ‘orderly’, from ordo, ordin- ‘order’.