medium

English Online Dictionary. What means medium‎? What does medium mean?

English

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mē'diəm, IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.di.əm/
• Rhymes: -iːdiəm

Noun

medium (plural media or mediums)

1. The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.
3. The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.
5. A format for communicating or presenting information.
6. (microbiology) A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.
7. (biology, horticulture, etc.) A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.
8. A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.
9. (engineering) The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.
10. (countable, plural mediums or media) A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.
11. (painting) A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).
12. (countable, logic) The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.
13. (countable, spiritualism, plural mediums or (rare, nonstandard) media) Someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
14. (countable) A middle place or degree.
15. (countable, dated) An average; sometimes the mathematical mean.
16. Anything of a middle rank or position.

Derived terms

• (material or substance): circumgalactic medium, interplanetary medium, interstellar medium, intergalactic medium, warm-hot intergalactic medium, warm ionized medium, contrast medium
• (format for communicating or presenting information): mass medium, storage medium, transmission medium, cool medium, hot medium, English-medium, social medium
• (microbology): culture medium, growth medium, Löwenstein-Jensen medium, LJ medium, differential medium, minimal medium, basal medium, Czapek medium, Czapek-Dox medium
• (means, channel or agency by which an aim is achieved): medium of exchange, medium of instruction, circulating medium
• (person claiming to convey information from the spirit world): mediumistic, mediumism, mediumship
• (middle place or degree): happy medium, strike a medium

Translations

Noun

medium (countable and uncountable, plural mediums) (nominalized)

1. (uncountable, especially clothing, food or drink) One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured.

   Synonym: M

2. (countable, especially clothing, food or drink) An item labelled or denoted as being that size.
3. (countable, especially with respect to clothing) One who fits an item of that size.
4. (countable, Ireland, dated, informal) A half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).

Translations

Adjective

medium (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) 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. (especially clothing, food or drink) That is medium (the manufactured size).

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:intermediate

Derived terms

Related terms

• mean
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• median
• mediocre
• mediocrity

Translations

Adverb

medium (not comparable)

1. To a medium extent.

Synonyms

• mediumly

References

• “medium”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “medium”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• edimmu

Danish

Etymology

From Latin medium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meːdiɔm/, [ˈmeːˀd̥jɔm]

Noun

medium or medie n (singular definite mediet, plural indefinite medier)

1. medium

Inflection

Adjective

medium (neuter medium, plural and definite singular attributive medium)

1. medium

Further reading

• medium on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeːdiʏm/

Noun

medium n (plural media, diminutive mediumpje n)

1. means, system or instrument for fulfilling an end
2. (physics) medium which a wave or force traverses
   • 2009, Douglas C. Giancoli, Natuurkunde. Deel 2: Elektriciteit, magnetism, optica en moderne fysica, (tr. by Marianne Kerkhof & Louis Rijk Vertaling, red. by Luc van Hoorebeeke & Jan Rykebusch), Pearson (4th edition), 1100.

3. (grammar) middle voice
4. (communication, media) means of communication, media outlet
5. (communication) data medium, something that contains data
6. channeler, someone who claims to access the dead

Derived terms

• geluidsmedium
• lichtmedium
• massamedium
• mediopassief
• taalmedium

Descendants

• → Indonesian: medium

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English medium, from Latin medium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmidiʏm/

Noun

medium n (plural mediums)

1. something of medium size

Adjective

medium (not comparable)

1. of medium size
2. (of meat) medium rare

Declension

Synonyms

• (medium rare): halfgaar

Indonesian

Etymology

• From Dutch medium, from Latin medium.
• Semantic loan from English medium for a measurement intermediate between extremes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [meˈdiʊm]
• Hyphenation: mé‧di‧um

Noun

médium (plural medium-medium)

1. medium,
   1. anything having a measurement intermediate between extremes
   2. the means, channel, or agency by which an aim is achieved
   3. someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world
   4. (physics) the materials or empty space through which signals, waves or forces pass
   5. (biology) a nutrient solution for the growth
2. (rare) media

Alternative forms

• media

Further reading

• “medium” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈme.di.um/, [ˈmɛd̪iʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈme.di.um/, [ˈmɛːd̪ium]

Adjective

medium

1. inflection of medius:
   1. masculine accusative singular
   2. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular

Noun

medium n (genitive mediī or medī); second declension

1. middle, center, medium, midst
2. community, public, publicity

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• e medio abeo
• in medio

Descendants

(All borrowings, inherited terms merged with the descendants of medius)

Noun

medium

1. accusative/genitive singular of medius

References

• “medium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “medium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "medium", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun

medium n (definite singular mediet, indefinite plural medier, definite plural media or mediene)

1. a medium (also in spiritualism)

Derived terms

• kjølemedium
• massemedium

See also

• medie-

References

• “medium” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun

medium n (definite singular mediet, indefinite plural medium, definite plural media)

1. a medium (also in spiritualism)

Derived terms

• kjølemedium
• massemedium

See also

• medie-

References

• “medium” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English medium, from Latin medium. Doublet of miedza and między.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.djum/
• Rhymes: -ɛdjum
• Syllabification: me‧dium

Noun

medium n

1. (spiritualism) medium (someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world)
2. means (instrument or condition for attaining a purpose)
3. (grammar) middle voice

   Synonym: strona zwrotna

Declension

Further reading

• medium in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• medium in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun

medium n

1. medium (on some scale)

2. a medium (substance in which some physical process takes place)
3. a medium (format for transmitting information)
4. (spiritualism) a medium
5. (grammar) middle voice
6. (mathematics) a mean

   Synonym: (more common) medelvärde

7. (dated) a middle part

Declension

Related terms

• etermedium
• lagringsmedium
• massmedium
• medel
• mediaklimat
• medial

References

• medium in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• medium in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• medium in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)