List of 426 Sets of Synonyms - How they Differ - Total of 2307 Words - 28

SYNONYMS: average, medium, mediocre, fair, middling, indifferent, tolerable.
These adjectives indicate rank or position around the middle of a scale of evaluation.

Average and medium apply to what is midway between extremes on such a scale; usually they imply both sufficiency and lack of distinction: a novel of average merit; a pot of medium size.
Mediocre stresses the undistinguished aspect of what is average: The intelligence of the students has gone from mediocre to above average.
What is fair is passable but substantially below excellent: a fair student; in fair health; have a fair idea of what's going on.
Middling refers to middle position between best and worst: gave a middling performance at best.
Indifferent applies to what is of less than striking character, being neither very good nor very bad: One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
Something that is tolerable is merely acceptable: She prepared a tolerable dinner.