averagely vs. on average

[Noot]

Hi, I'm proof-reading an article that contains the first sentence. My first reaction was to replace sentence number one with sentence number 3. But I'm wondering whether the term 'averagely' could in fact be used in this sense. If it can, then I would tend towards the formulation in the second example. Could someone please tell me whether the first and second sentences are correct ? Thanks!

1. The women averagely give birth to three children.
2. The women give birth to averagely three children.
3. The women give birth on average to three children.

 

[tedmc]

1. The women, averagely, give birth to three children.
2. The women give birth to, averagely, three children.
3. The women give birth, on the average, to three children.

You need commas and "the" as shown.

not a teacher

 

[emsr2d2]

I was actually surprised to find "averagely" in the dictionary. I have never seen it or used it. "On the average" is incorrect. I would change the word order and use "On average, the women give birth to three children". This assumes that the reader knows who "the women" are - it must refer to a particular set of women which has been pre-defined.
If you remove "the", it would refer to all the women in the world.

 

[Noot]

Thanks very much for both replies. I too was surprised to find the word "averagely" in the dictionary. That's why my initial reaction was to change it to "on average". The example above sounds best to me: "On average, the women give birth to three children". That's really helpful, thanks so much.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't think "averagely" is used much.

 

[MikeNewYork]

See the Ngram.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I had almost forgotten about the word 'averagely' until I came across this thread.
I was on the point of agreeing with emsr2d2, before it came back to me, because the word seemed so out of place in this context.

In fact, it is used to mean 'reasonably' or, 'good to middling' as in 'He's an averagely good singer, but an excellent song writer.'