Typical Meaning
/ˈtɪp.ɪ.kəl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjCapturing the overall sense of a thing.
adjCharacteristically representing something by form, group, idea or type.
Sentence Examples
It is often pointed out that a vague smile is typical of the Japanese.
Uh-oh, here comes another lecture. How typical. This guy has something to say about everything.
The program can model a typical home page for you.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
It is ____ for her to arrive late, so we were not surprised when she did.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ day at the office involves several meetings and a lot of work on the current important projects today.
Word Origin & History
From Late Latin typicalis, from Latin typicus (“typical”), from Ancient Greek τυπικός (tupikós, “of or pertaining to a type, conformable, typical”), from τύπος (túpos, “mark, impression, type”), equivalent to typic + -al and type + -ical.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Compare this with, for instance, the heights of adult humans. They certainly lie within half an order of magnitude from a mean of about 1.7 m, being within the interval 5.4–0.54 m (18–1.8 ft). It is obvious from our three examples—the height of a person, household income in the United States, and the area of EU countries—that the concept of what is typical or characteristic depends on the case one refers to. Nevertheless, even vague measures can have a useful meaning in a comparison with something that is very different. For instance, the area of EU countries is typically much larger than the area of the city of New York, although Malta is actually smaller."
— 2010, Göran Grimvall, “Chapter 1: Numbers”, in Quantify! A Crash Course in Smart Thinking, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN:
"Also perpetual is the practice of extending greetings and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.
The most typical traditional greeting is gong xi fa cai (for prosperity). And it certainly has been the most appropriate one since China in late 1978 denounced the political upheaval of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and launched its large-scale reform and development programmes."
— 1989 February 6 [1989 February 4], “Spring Festival”, in Daily Report: China, number 023, sourced from Beijing CHINA DAILY p 4, →ISSN, →OCLC, National Affairs, page 30, column 1:
"One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually."
— 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
"Celticecis species are definitely known only from the typical subgenus of Celtis, distributed through much of the Holarctic Region."
— 2013 September 9, Raymond G. Gagné, John C. Moser, “The North American gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of hackberries (Cannabaceae: Celtis spp.)”, in Memoirs of the American Entomological Society, volume 49:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
It is ____ for her to arrive late, so we were not surprised when she did.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ day at the office involves several meetings and a lot of work on the current important projects today.