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.”
A polymer based on the elastic protein that enables fleas to perform their extraordinary jumping feats has been synthesized. The material … is, perhaps unsurprisingly, rubbery and highly resilient; indeed, some of its properties exceed those of a material used to make bouncy balls for the playground. Rosamund Daw, Nature, 13 Oct. 2005Jimi 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. 2004Like 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, 2003Books 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. See More
Recent Examples on the WebIn clinging to that rosy outlook, the Fed completely misjudged how the government’s unprecedented fiscal stimulus—along with its own extraordinary monetary accommodation—would affect aggregate demand and inflation. Andrew T. Levin And Mickey D. Levy, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2022 Donatella helped originate the concept of the brand ambassador, becoming a face and reference for the extraordinary Versace universe. Maria Luisa Frisa, Vogue, 19 Sep. 2022 The answer to the query is both routine and extraordinary: The Americans got stuck in traffic.Time, 19 Sep. 2022 Their brief is a potent reminder of the extraordinary stakes that surround questions of citizenship, as well as the long shadow of history that can fall upon those who were denied it. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 19 Sep. 2022 The ocean-view event draws artists from throughout the region and across the country and features extraordinary art in every style, medium and price point.San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Sep. 2022 If those consequential struggles continue, with a largely challenging upcoming schedule, alongside BYU’s troubled kicking game, hope for something extraordinary to occur in 2022 will fade quickly. Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 Sep. 2022 Yet Phantom has surpassed that show’s extraordinary Broadway run. Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 17 Sep. 2022 Yet ‘Phantom’ has surpassed that show’s extraordinary Broadway run. Mark Kennedy, Chron, 17 Sep. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English extraordinarie, from Latin extraordinarius, from extra ordinem out of course, from extra + ordinem, accusative of ordin-, ordo order