English Explanatory Dictionary

median

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.
  2. A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.
  3. A number separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, population, or probability distribution. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one (e.g., the median of {3, 3, 5, 9, 11} is 5). If there is an even number of observations, then there is no single middle value; the median is then usually defined to be the mean of the two middle values.
  4. The area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic.
adj
  1. Situated in a middle, central, or intermediate part, section, or range of (something).
  2. In the middle of an organ, structure etc.; towards the median plane of an organ or limb.
  3. Having the median as its value.
adj
  1. Relating to Media or Medes.
  2. Of laws, rules etc.: unchanging, invariable.
noun
  1. A Mede.
name
  1. The northwestern Old Iranian language of the Medes, attested only by numerous loanwords in Old Persian, few borrowings in Old Armenian and some glosses in Ancient Greek; nothing is known of its grammar.

Pronunciation

/ˈmiː.dɪən/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-median.wav /ˈmi.di.ən/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-median.wav [ˈmɪi.di.ən] /ˈmiɖ(ɪ)jən/ /ˈmiːdɪən/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Median.wav

Word forms

median medians Medean

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French median, from Latin mediānus (“of or pertaining to the middle”, adjective), from medius (“middle”) (see medium), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”). Doublet of mean and mizzen. Cognate with Old English midde, middel (“middle”). More at middle.

Synonyms

median strip central reservation reservation Medic

Related words

mean medial mediate mediation mediator mediocre mediocrity medium mesial average mode Wiktionary’s coverage of Old Median terms xme

Derived words

admedian antemedian anterior median fissure anteromedian antimedian basomedian bimedian caudomedian centromedian dorsomedian externomedian extramedian inframedian internomedian intramedian median age median effective time median egret median eminence median lethal time median line medianly median plane median strip median survival time median system nonmedian paramedian posteriomedian posteromedian postmedian pseudomedian submedian supramedian transmedian ventromedian

Translations

Bulgarian: среден Catalan: medià Finnish: keskeinen Finnish: keski- Portuguese: mediano Portuguese: central Spanish: mediano Welsh: canol
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