What's the difference between mediocre and mundane?

Mediocre


Definition:

  • (a.) Of a middle quality; of but a moderate or low degree of excellence; indifferent; ordinary.
  • (n.) A mediocre person.
  • (n.) A young monk who was excused from performing a portion of a monk's duties.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The interobserver variability of these indices is low (r greater than 0.96); reproducibility is good in patients with sinus rhythm but mediocre in atrial fibrillation.
  • (2) Only a few weeks ago he described English education as “mediocre”.
  • (3) This is a community where readers' patience for mediocrity is measured in seconds not minutes," added Thomson, the former Times editor who moved to New York to run the WSJ at the end of 2007 following Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the paper's publisher, Dow Jones.
  • (4) The hospital laboratory was asked to provide for diffractometric analysis samples of the "mediocre" semens of quality similar enough to the "control" ones what concerns the percentage of motile spermatozoa (40 percent) and spermatozoan concentration.
  • (5) The unprecedented stimuli provided by central banks has kept activity ticking over, but proved unable to lift the global economy out of what Lagarde calls “the new mediocre”.
  • (6) I'm sure that advisers are at fault: mediocre people with PR degrees, eagerly advising on how to avoid the resentment of the masses.
  • (7) The value of conventional non-invasive methods is limited by a high failure rate (standard echocardiography in patients with chronic respiratory disease), a mediocre sensitivity, notably in detecting moderate PAH (electrocardiography, radiography of the chest, myocardial thalium scintigraphy) or a poor specificity (isotopic angiography).
  • (8) From the endocrine point of view, the mediocre prognosis is aggravated by high energy radiotherapy.
  • (9) The mediocre results among the group of inoperable patients suggest that other chemotherapy protocols need to be tested.
  • (10) This grid, used for the analysis of 527 randomized trials, showed that about one-half of them were of mediocre quality, the most frequent defects encountered being the multiplicity of assessment criteria, the lack of description of the subjects excluded, the absence of calculation of the number of subjects required before starting the trial and the small number of subjects in trials with non-significant results.
  • (11) Negative and mediocre results were more frequent in cases of gonarthrosis.
  • (12) Its contribution is obviously essential when, for technical reasons, arterial opacification is only mediocre (extended angiocardiopneumography).
  • (13) Stock Woolstencroft , architects of the dismal Stratford towers, are attempting to continue their march of mediocrity with schemes on the other side of the park.
  • (14) All the interviews supported the notion of an arbitrary norm for pay, which almost all firms felt was grossly and inappropriately high … The general view of search firms is that a lower norm would not materially affect what happens.” One headhunter said: “I think there are an awful lot of FTSE 100 CEOs who are pretty mediocre.” Another added: “I think that the wage drift over the past 10 years, or the salary drift, has been inexcusable, incomprehensible, and it is very serious for the social fabric of the country.” The findings are being made public just as an analysis by the High Pay Centre thinktank shows that the average pay of a chief executive – including pensions, share options and bonuses – stands at about £4.6m.
  • (15) A mediocre succession of atria and galleries, it does at least give artists space.
  • (16) Such has been the generally mediocre standard of Woods' play over the last two years, he has had perhaps only half a dozen realistic chances of winning on Sunday afternoon.
  • (17) This would happen especially if the school inspectorate Ofsted found they were failing, mediocre, fragile or coasting.
  • (18) For the svengali of mediocrity decreed that every year would culminate in the release of a single from the winner of his X Factor, and that this contribution to the lexicon would dutifully top the charts.
  • (19) Chemicals on the loop were Ca (abundant); Mg (marked); Si (mediocre); Ab, Ba, Fe (insignificant); Mn, Mo, Zn, P (trace).
  • (20) While the Lakers' two-year contract extension may end up being "an expensive mediocrity overpaying a franchise star in decline", as Grantland's Zach Lowe has put it , it could also have very well been the only move it could have sold to its fans.

Mundane


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to the world; worldly; earthly; terrestrial; as, the mundane sphere.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But most instances are more mundane: the majority of fraud cases in recent years have emerged from scientists either falsifying images – deliberately mislabelling scans and micrographs – or fabricating or altering their recorded data.
  • (2) This morning he has mundane tasks to attend to – the logistics of players’ luggage for Basel – but the man they call Monchi is the sporting director and the architect who transformed the club.
  • (3) This requirement is one that Americans comply with every day to engage in mundane activities like cashing a check, opening a bank account or boarding a plane,” said Reed Clay, a special assistant under Abbott.
  • (4) The low number of scorable dream reports collected did not reveal a heightened incidence of "masochistic" or "negative" content, indeed were rather mundane.
  • (5) Today's demands are more mundane: hostage-takers range from single mothers to the nearly retired - they want jobs, proper pay and no brutal layoffs.
  • (6) Recent research in Delhi has revealed more mundane causes for high levels of violence and harassment.
  • (7) Finally, Guardian sports reporter turned ace observationalist Josh Widdicombe has the ability to find the sparkle in the mundane that puts him in line to become the next Sean Lock.
  • (8) Our current understanding of these disease processes is discussed in an effort to review the current status of both the mundane and the esoteric infections of the kidney.
  • (9) The perhaps disappointingly mundane answer, however, lies in a television programme.
  • (10) What seems the epitome of mundane routine for the average British commuter is being seen as near miraculous in a city where, like Los Angeles, the car is king and the train is nowhere in sight when navigating the sprawling suburbs.
  • (11) Many organisms construct structural ceramic (biomineral) composites from seemingly mundane materials; cell-mediated processes control both the nucleation and growth of mineral and the development of composite microarchitecture.
  • (12) In any case, Caine’s interest was piqued by more mundane matters: it was the first time he had been asked to play a conductor.
  • (13) Modern research has confirmed that memories for emotionally intense situations are unusually vivid and detailed, but it has also shown that they are no more accurate than mundane memories.
  • (14) These are the same mundane, bureaucratic factors that conspired to prevent any kind of action in Rwanda , 20 years ago.
  • (15) Published in their original handwritten form, the minutes of meetings of the Bank’s Court of Directors from 1914 to 45 , and of another key decision-making body, the Committee of the Treasury, from 1914 to 1931 , reveal a rich interweaving of the Earth-shattering and the mundane, which carried several echoes of the most recent crisis period of 2007-09 – minutes from which were released by the Bank on Tuesday.
  • (16) I think it’s useless to be afraid, actually … I believe that when you do things, when you decide an action, any fear goes away because action is stronger than fear.” Back in Moscow there are more mundane problems to worry about.
  • (17) Jimmy McGovern's saga of the ill-fated residents of The Street was similarly afflicted, despite its pedigree, as was Broadchurch, the unremitting Southcliffe and Prey, the recent Mancunian take on The Fugitive which managed to be both far-fetched and gruellingly mundane.
  • (18) In Scott & Bailey , for example, a good deal of the police work is mundane and the characters are bedevilled by the kinds of real-life domestic troubles that normally receive little more than lip service in police procedure.
  • (19) To the casual observer, emails between CIA staff and Bigelow's team have a somewhat mundane quality to them, though they do suggest a certain fanboyesque enthusiasm for the Hollywood project.
  • (20) Although rare, eosinophilic granuloma can be associated with cutaneous lesions, sometimes isolated and mundane in appearance.