extraordinary
adjective
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What is the difference between extraordinary and extra ordinary?
Prefixes can be tricky things, often carrying meanings that differ from what one might expect. Additionally, some prefixes are spelled like independent English words, yet may have meanings that are different from those words. Such is the case with the word extra and the prefix extra-.
The word extra is used as a noun, adjective, and an adverb. When used as a separate word, as in the sentence “It was an extra ordinary day,” “extra” is functioning as an adverb meaning “very.” An “extra ordinary day” is a day that is very ordinary. In contrast, the prefix extra- means “outside or beyond.” Attached to “ordinary,” in “It was an extraordinary day,” the meaning changes markedly, to “It was a day beyond ordinary.”
Synonyms
Examples of extraordinary in a Sentence
Rosamund Daw, Nature, 13 Oct. 2005
Jimi Hendrix is one of those extraordinary hubs of music where everybody lands at some point. Every musician passes through Hendrix International Airport eventually. … He is the common denominator of every style of contemporary music.
—John Mayer, Rolling Stone, 15 Apr. 2004
Like the eighteenth-century Scots, whose similar borderland situation stimulated an extraordinary renaissance in letters, natural science, and social science, the Americans' ambivalent identities led them to the interstices of metropolitan thought where were found new views and new approaches to the old.
—Bernard Bailyn, To Begin the World Anew, 2003
Books can even have merits that are owed to their lack of literary quality: Agatha Christie's whodunits display an extraordinary ingenuity in their plotting, but the beauty of the puzzle requires cardboard characters and total implausibility in motives and reasons.
—Richard Jenkyns, New Republic, 28 Jan. 2002
The researchers made an extraordinary discovery.
The race is an extraordinary event.
Judith Graham, USA TODAY, 7 Apr. 2024
Piet Levy Andrea Bocelli's extraordinary talent paved the way for an extraordinary life.
—Journal Sentinel, 7 Apr. 2024
Without the summer heat, Venice and its lagoon offer truly extraordinary sights and natural spectacles.
—Maddalena Fossati, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Apr. 2024
In alphabetical order, Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid have all had extraordinary seasons and would be worthy winners.
—Corey Masisak, The Denver Post, 6 Apr. 2024
The level of detail of the mosaics that have been discovered there are just extraordinary; there are levels of preservation that are as good as Pompeii.
—Mark Ellwood, Fortune Europe, 6 Apr. 2024
The extraordinary compassion, love, and devotion shown to each and every person who walks through our doors humbles me every day.
—Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 5 Apr. 2024
However, the rare and extraordinary meeting of your joyful ruler Jupiter with wild child Uranus on April 20 turns up the dial on what’s possible between yourself and a significant other.
—Debbie Frank, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024
The city gave the extraordinary downtown property to the art museum 20 years ago as part of extensive redevelopment, still ongoing.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'extraordinary.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near extraordinary
Cite this Entry
“Extraordinary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extraordinary. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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extraordinary
adjective
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extraordinary
adjective
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