English Explanatory Dictionary

medium

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.
  2. The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.
  3. A format for communicating or presenting information.
  4. A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.
  5. A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.
  6. A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.
  7. The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.
  8. A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.
  9. A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).
  10. The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.
  11. Someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
  12. A middle place or degree.
noun
  1. One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured, smaller than a large but larger than a small.
  2. An item labelled or denoted as being that size.
  3. One who fits an item of that size.
  4. A half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).
adj
  1. Arithmetically average.
  2. Of intermediate size, degree, amount etc.
  3. Of meat, cooked to a point greater than rare but less than well done; typically, so the meat is still red in the centre.
  4. That is medium (the manufactured size).
adv
  1. To a medium extent.

Pronunciation

mē'diəm /ˈmiː.di.əm/ en-us-medium.ogg

Word forms

medium media mediums

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium, neuter of medius (“middle”), from Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). Compare middle. Doublet of mid, medio, media, and meson.

Synonyms

M mediumly

Related words

mean median mediate mediation mediator mediocre mediocrity

Derived words

circumgalactic medium contrast medium intergalactic medium interplanetary medium interstellar medium warm-hot intergalactic medium warm ionized medium basal medium culture medium Czapek-Dox medium Czapek medium differential medium growth medium LJ medium Löwenstein-Jensen medium minimal medium biomedium cryomedium geomedium hypermedium intermedium mediumic mediumist mediumize mediumweight multimedial multimedium plurimedial polymedial postmedium transmedium cool medium English-medium hot medium mass medium social medium storage medium transmission medium circulating medium medium of exchange medium of instruction mediumism mediumistic mediumship happy medium strike a medium lower-medium medium-brow medium-chain medium dead medium drink medium dry medium Earth orbit medium format medium icebreaker medium long shot medium machine gun medium pace medium pacer medium-quality

Translations

Portuguese: médio
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