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# ordinary

«ordinary» in Mova's school dictionary: **normal, usual or plain; not special or different** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective; noun (out of the ordinary)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Ordinary means normal, usual or plain; not special or different. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#m1)

2) «Out of the ordinary» means unusual or surprising. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories ordinary people or ordinary days are often where adventures begin; in maths, ordinary numbers may be contrasted with special ones. Phrases: «an ordinary day», «ordinary people», «out of the ordinary», «nothing out of the ordinary».

### examples

- It was just an ordinary day at school. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x1)
- She seemed like an ordinary girl, but she had a secret. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x2)
- Ordinary pencils are fine for the test. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x3)
- Nothing out of the ordinary happened. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x4)
- The magic shop looked ordinary from the outside. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x5)
- Ordinary people can do great things. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x6)
- It was no ordinary cat — it could talk! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x7)
- But this was no ordinary centipede. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/#x8)

### note

Adverb: ordinarily (usually). Opposite: extraordinary, special, unusual. Spelling trap: ordin-ary (not ordinery). Trap: «extraordinary» means very special, not «extra ordinary».

### In the corpora

- [These are ordinary parts of a big family.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/17-gran-cousins-and-the-whole-family/6/)
- [Tense music, close-ups and slow motion make ordinary mistakes feel dangerous; turn the sound down and the drama shrinks.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/54-reality-tv-what-is-staged-and-what-is-real/13/)
- [In the UK the watershed is 9 pm: programmes not suitable for children are not shown on ordinary TV channels before then.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/57-age-ratings-and-why-they-exist/19/)
- [Chatbots are trained to be pleasant: "Great question!" they say, even when you asked something quite ordinary.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/6-why-the-bot-agrees-too-easily/0/)
- [Not one person: governments, companies, scientists and ordinary people all have a say, through laws, votes and choices.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/25-future-fears-rules/5/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «ordinary» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/ordinary/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.