normal

adjective

1)

they issue books in the normal way

Syn:

usual, standard, ordinary, customary, conventional, habitual, accustomed, expected, wonted; typical, stock, common, everyday, regular, routine, established, set, fixed, traditional, time-honored

Ant:

unusual

2)

a normal couple

Syn:

ordinary, average, typical, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road, common, conventional, mainstream, unremarkable, unexceptional, garden-variety, a dime a dozen

••

normal, average, natural, ordinary, regular, typical, usual

Most of us want to be regarded as normal, an adjective that implies conformity with established norms or standards and is the opposite of abnormal (a normal body temperature; normal intelligence). Regular, like normal, is usually preferred to its opposite (irregular) and implies conformity to prescribed standards or established patterns (their regular monthly meeting; a regular guy), but normal carries stronger connotations of conformity within prescribed limits and sometimes allows for a wider range of differences. Few of us think of ourselves as ordinary, a term used to describe what is commonplace or unexceptional (an ordinary person wearing ordinary clothes), although many people are ordinary in some ways and extraordinary in others. Average also implies conformity with what is regarded as normal or ordinary (a woman of average height), although it tends to emphasize the middle ground and to exclude both positive and negative extremes. Typical applies to persons or things possessing the representative characteristics of a type or class (a typical teenager). Someone or something described as natural behaves or operates in accordance with an inherent nature or character (his fears were natural for one so young), while usual applies to that which conforms to common or ordinary use or occurrence (we paid the usual price).