What does ordinary mean?
Word: Ordinary
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Ordinary means normal and usual, with nothing special or different about it.
Synonyms: normal, usual, common, everyday
Antonyms: special, unusual, extraordinary
How do you spell ordinary?
Syllables: or - di - nar - y
Tricky part: The ending is ary, not ery. Said fast, the word sounds like ord-n-ree, which hides it.
Watch out for: ordinery, ordinarry
Memory tip: Ordinary, dictionary and stationary (standing still) share the same ary ending.
Ordinary in a sentence
Example 1: It was an ordinary Monday until the fire drill started.
Example 2: Ordinary people raised money to rebuild the school after the floods.
Example 3: Use ordinary salt if you have no rock salt.
Fun Fact
Extraordinary is simply extra + ordinary, meaning outside the ordinary, yet most people say it as if it were spelt extrordinary.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell Spies
Choose the misspelt word/s in the given sentence:
It looked like an ordanary pebble, but the geologist said it was a rare fosil millions of years old.
a) only fosil
b) pebble, geologist
c) ordanary, fosil
d) only ordanary
Show answer
c) ordanary, fosil. The second vowel of ordinary is i, and fossil has a double s.
Word Champ
In which option are the given words arranged in alphabetical order?
1. ordinary 2. ordinance 3. ordinarily 4. ordinal
a) 4321
b) 4231
c) 4213
d) 2431
Show answer
b) 4231. All four start with ordin: ordinal comes first (l before n and r), then ordinance, and ordinarily comes before ordinary because i comes before y.
Word Tally
Score 3 marks for every misspelt word. What is the total?
ordinary, sallary, primary, Febuary, granary
a) 6
b) 9
c) 12
d) 3
Show answer
a) 6. Salary has one l and February has an r after the b; two errors at 3 marks each make 6.
Jumble Tumble
What is the meaning of the word that can be formed from the given letters?
dyranoir
a) the sort you meet every day, with nothing to make it stand out
b) covered in bright colours and shiny patterns
c) so old and rare that collectors pay a great deal for it
d) hidden so well that hardly anyone ever finds it
Show answer
a) the sort you meet every day, with nothing to make it stand out. The eight letters of dyranoir make ordinary.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. For a school pupil, an ordinary event is ____.
a) winning a Nobel Prize
b) meeting a king
c) a day of lessons
d) flying to the Moon
Show answer
c) a day of lessons
2. Which word is the opposite of ordinary?
a) plain
b) typical
c) regular
d) remarkable
Show answer
d) remarkable
