# norm

## English

### Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA(key): /nɔːm/
• (US) enPR: nôrmIPA: /nɔɹm/X-SAMPA: /nOrm/  Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.
• Rhymes: -ɔː(r)m

### Etymology 1

From Latin norma (a carpenter's square, a rule, a pattern, a precept).

#### Noun

norm (plural norms)

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia

1. (usually definite, the norm) That which is regarded as normal or typical.
Unemployment is the norm in this part of the country.
• 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, Guardian:
"This shocking report proves once again that we urgently need a radical shake-up of hospital care," said Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society. "Given that people with dementia occupy a quarter of hospital beds and that many leave in worse health than when they were admitted, it is unacceptable that training in dementia care is not the norm."
2. A rule that is enforced by members of a community.
Not eating your children is just one of those societal norms.
3. () A sentence with non-descriptive meaning, such as a command, permission, or prohibition.
4. (mathematics) A function, generally denoted $v\mapsto\left|v\right|$ or $v\mapsto\left\|v\right\|$, that maps vectors to non-negative scalars and has the following properties:
1. if $v\ne0$ then $\left\|v\right\|\ne0$;
2. given a scalar $k$, $\left\|kv\right\|=\left|k\right|\cdot\left\|v\right\|$, where $\left|k\right|$ is the absolute value of $k$;
3. given two vectors $v,w$, $\left\|v+w\right\|\le\left\|v\right\|+\left\|w\right\|$ (the triangle inequality).
5. (chess) A high level of performance in a chess tournament, several of which are required for a player to receive a title.

### Etymology 2

Back-formation from normed.

#### Verb

norm (third-person singular simple present norms, present participle norming, simple past and past participle normed)

1. (analysis) To endow (a vector space, etc) with a norm.