How to spell average

hear itav·er·age/'ævərɪdʒ/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Commonly encountered or around the middle.

In a sentence: The average time to bake cookies is about 15 minutes.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as avarage or averige.

Same family: averages, averaged, averaging, on-average, mean. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Average” comes from an old French word "avarie," which originally referred to damage to goods at sea that was shared among merchants. Over time, the idea of "sharing" or "evening out" led to the mathematical and everyday meaning of an ordinary or middle value.

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You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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