norm

plural norms

1. That which is normal or typical.

   Unemployment is the norm in this part of the country.

   4 more examples

   […] the world needs a constitutional moment that will generate new institutions and actuate a new norm.

   2008, Dennis Patterson, Ari Afilalo, The New Global Trading Order: The Evolving State and the Future of Trade

   "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."

   2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 31 May 2022

   Projects such as the King's Cross refurbishment, Waterloo blockade, Scottish electrification and the Borders show that the industry can do wonderful work - but that must become the norm, not the exception.

   2019 December 18, Richard Clinnick, “Railway's 2020 vision”, in Rail, page 3

   For most people, this sacrifice is made easily and instinctively. Not so for otroverts, who are neither willing nor able to passively adopt the social scripts that others do. To the otrovert, who is constantly engaged with the choices and consequences of their individual life, social norms follow a circular logic: […]

   2025 June 19, Rami Kaminski, ““Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t”, in Big Think, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2025

2. A rule that is imposed by regulations and/or socially enforced by members of a community.

   Not eating your children is just one of those societal norms.

   1 more example

   Peer pressure helps explain why people in Europe weigh less than Americans: They follow different social norms, like eating only at mealtimes instead of snacking throughout the day.

   2011, Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney, Willpower, →ISBN, page 230

3. computerA sentence with non-descriptive meaning, such as a command, permission, or prohibition.
4. A function which satisfies a particular set of formal conditions, created to generalize the notion of the length of a vector. Formally, a real-valued function on a vector space, generally denoted v↦|v| or v↦‖v‖, that satisfies the following properties:
   1. mathematicsif v ne 0 then ‖v‖ ne 0;
   2. mathematicsgiven a scalar k, ‖kv‖=|k|·‖v‖, where |k| is the absolute value of k;
   3. mathematicsgiven two vectors v,w, ‖v+w‖<‖v‖+‖w‖ (the triangle inequality).
5. mathematicsAny of several generalizations of the above: a field norm, ideal norm, etc.
   1. algebraAn element of the image of some (generalized) norm, the element then said to be from the norm in question, or from the structure which gave rise to the norm.

      A quaternion algebra (a,b) over ksplits if and only if b is a norm from the field extension k(#92;sqrt#123;a#125;)#47;k, i.e. if and only if there is some x in k(#92;sqrt#123;a#125;) which has field norm exactly equal to b.

6. board gamesA high level of performance in a chess tournament, several of which are required for a player to receive a title.

present singular third person norms · participle present norming · participle past normed · past normed

1. mathematical analysisTo endow (a vector space, etc.) with a norm.

1. A diminutive of the male given name Norman.

plural NORMs

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of naturally occurring radioactive materials.

   Radon in homes is one occurrence of NORM which may give rise to concern and action to control it, by ventilation.

   2016, World Nuclear Association, (Please provide the book title or journal name)

2. abbreviationcountableinitialismhuman sciencesInitialism of nonmobile older rural male, the target conservative informant for documenting dialects and regional accents.