Other forms: norms
A norm is what is usual and expected in a group. Social norms, the norm rather than the exception, break the norm.
The norm, with the, means the usual state of things: working from home has become the norm. In sociology, norms are the unwritten rules a group enforces without anybody stating them, and breaking one produces immediate discomfort. In statistics and testing, a norm is a standard reference value. Note normal, normative, which means saying how things should be rather than how they are, and normalise.
1nounnormWhat is usual and expected in a group.
“Two children per family became the norm in the country.”
2noununwrittenAn unwritten rule a group enforces.
“In many cultures, it's a social norm to take your shoes off when entering a home.”
norm is a standard or usual state.
Latin norma meant a carpenter's square — the tool used to check a right angle — and then a rule or standard. A norm is literally something you hold things up against to see whether they are true.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵneh₃-
Latin
norma
English, today
norm
Borrowed from Latin norma. From Latin norma (“a carpenter's square, a rule, a pattern, a precept”). a doublet of norma.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA