Non-mathematical Usage
'Lowest common denominator' is often used as a figure of speech meaning the most basic, least sophisticated level of taste, sensibility, or opinion among a group of people. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest illustration comes from H. G. Wells' 1910 serialisation of The New Machiavelli: Most clubs have a common link, a lowest common denominator in the Club Bore, who spares no one. The term had been used earlier in 1906 by British Labour politician Stephen Walsh during a constituency speech.
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Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)