medium

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See also: Medium, médium, and mèdium

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin medium, neuter of medius (“middle”). Compare middle. Cognate with Spanish medio (“middle; half; means, medium, way”).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: mē'diəm, IPA(key): /ˈmiːdɪəm/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːdiəm

Noun[edit]

medium (plural media or medias or mediums)

  1. (plural media or mediums) The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.
  3. (plural media or mediums) The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.
    • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, III. Century, p. 60,[1]
      Whether any other Liquours, being made Mediums, cause a Diuersity of Sound from Water, it may be tried:
    • 1642, John Denham, The Sophy, London: Thomas Walkley, Act II, Scene 1, page 12,[2]
      He’s old and jealous, apt for suspitions, gainst which tyrants ears
      Are never clos’d. The Prince is young,
      Fierce, and ambitious, I must bring together
      All these extreames, and then remove all Mediums,
      That each may be the others object.
  5. (plural media or mediums) A format for communicating or presenting information.
  6. (plural media or mediums, microbiology) A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.
    • 1996, Samuel Baron (editor), Medical Microbiology:
      In some instances one can take advantage of differential carbohydrate fermentation capabilities of microorganisms by incorporating one or more carbohydrates in the medium along with a suitable pH indicator. Such media are called differential media (e.g., eosin methylene blue or MacConkey agar) and are commonly used to isolate enteric bacilli.
  7. (plural media or mediums, biology, horticulture etc.) A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.
  8. (plural media or mediums) A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.
    • 2007, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Reprint Services Corporation (→ISBN), page 186:
      His loyalty to the English was doubtful and wavering, and his opposition to Post's journey was probably due to fears that his own importance as a medium between the Ohio Indians and the English would be diminished by the former's success.
  9. (plural mediums, spiritualism) Someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
    • 1926, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist‎[3]:
      The hall was not too well lit and dark shadows lurked in the corners. The medium still bent her head as if her ears were straining.
  10. (plural mediums or media) A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.
  11. (plural mediums or media, painting) A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).
    Acrylics, oils, charcoal, and gouache are all mediums I used in my painting.
    • 1898, Missouri Department of Education, Report of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri, page 98:
      Heretofore in following the course, the student has been confined to black and white in the medium of charcoal, pen and ink or pencil. The first introduction to color is by means of the Still Life painting class.
    • 1966, John P. Sedgwick, Discovering Modern Art: The Intelligent Layman's Guide to Painting from Impressionism to Pop
      It was the woodcut, however, that emerged as the favorite graphic medium of Expressionism. Rejecting the almost limitless pictorial possibilities of lithography, which had dominated printmaking during the nineteenth century, […]
    • 1967, Barnet Kottler, Martin Light, The World of Words: A Language Reader:
      So we get a people in rebellion against a dominant majority, but forced to rebel secretly, to sublimate, as the psychologist would put it — to express themselves culturally through the medium of jaz , and linguistically through a code, a jargon  ...
    • 1974, Karl Siegfried Weimar, German Language and Literature: Seven Essays, Prentice Hall
      Prose is not the preferred medium of expressionism, yet some outstanding individual examples come to mind, for example: Robert Walser's (1876–1956) surrealistic miniatures and novels of a dreamlike structure reminiscent of Kafka […]
    • 1999, Jet, page 29:
      The Pulitzer board said the award was given “in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture.”
  12. (plural media or mediums, engineering) The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.
  13. (plural mediums) Anything having a measurement intermediate between extremes, such as a garment or container.
  14. (plural mediums) A person whom garments or apparel of intermediate size fit.
  15. (plural mediums, Ireland, dated, informal) A half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).
  16. A middle place or degree.
    a happy medium
    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflexions, London: R. Sare et al., Fable 215. An Oak and a Willow, Reflexion, p. 188,[4]
      […] the Just Medium of This Case lies betwixt the Pride, and the Abjection of the Two Extreams.
    • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, London: John Murray, Volume 2, Chapter 2, p. 29,[5]
      Her height was pretty […] her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin […]
    • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, Chapter 44, p. 453,[6]
      In search of the principle on which joints ought to be roasted, to be roasted enough, and not too much, I myself referred to the Cookery Book […] . But the principle always failed us by some curious fatality, and we never could hit any medium between redness and cinders.
  17. (dated) An average; sometimes the mathematical mean.
    • 1769, Edmund Burke, Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: J. Dodsley, p. 13,[7]
      a medium of six years of war, and six years of peace
  18. (logic) The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adverb[edit]

medium (not comparable)

  1. To a medium extent.

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin medium.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /meːdiɔm/, [ˈmeːˀd̥jɔm]

Noun[edit]

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

  1. medium

Inflection[edit]

Declension of medium
neuter
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative medium mediet medier medierne
genitive mediums mediets mediers mediernes

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. medium

Further reading[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

medium n (plural media, diminutive mediumpje n)

  1. means, system or instrument for fulfilling an end
    • 1967, Evert Willem Barth, Moderne logica, Van Gorcum, 138-139.
      Het is zeer aannemelijk dat sommige talen zich er beter toe lenen dan andere, als medium voor het logisch denken dienst te doen.
      It is very probable that some language are more suitable to being used as a medium for logical thinking than others are.
  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.
      Ze noemden dit transparante medium de ether en gingen ervan uit dat de hele ruimte ervan doordrongen was.
      They called this transparent medium aether and assumed that all of space was completely pervaded by it.
  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[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • → Indonesian: medium

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from English medium, from Latin medium.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

medium n (plural mediums)

  1. something of medium size

Adjective[edit]

medium (not comparable)

  1. of medium size
  2. (of meat) medium rare
Inflection[edit]
Inflection of medium
uninflected medium
inflected -
comparative —
positive
predicative/adverbial medium
indefinite m./f. sing. -
n. sing. medium
plural -
definite -
partitive mediums
Synonyms[edit]

Indonesian[edit]

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia id

Etymology[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

medium or médium

  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[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Latin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

medium

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

Noun[edit]

medium n (genitive mediī or medī); second declension

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

Declension[edit]

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative medium media
Genitive mediī
medī1 		mediōrum
Dative mediō mediīs
Accusative medium media
Ablative mediō mediīs
Vocative medium media

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

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Noun[edit]

medium

  1. accusative singular of medius
  2. genitive singular of medius

References[edit]

  • 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[8], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • (ambiguous) the Mediterranean Sea: mare medium or internum
    • (ambiguous) the middle ages: media quae vocatur aetas
    • (ambiguous) manhood: aetas constans, media, firmata, corroborata (not virilis)
    • (ambiguous) to remove a person: e or de medio tollere
    • (ambiguous) to become known, become a topic of common conversation (used of things): foras efferri, palam fieri, percrebrescere, divulgari, in medium proferri, exire, emanare
    • (ambiguous) to leave a thing undecided: aliquid in medio, in dubio relinquere (Cael. 20. 48)
    • (ambiguous) elevated, moderate, plain style: genus dicendi grave or grande, medium, tenue (cf. Or. 5. 20; 6. 21)
    • (ambiguous) to bring a subject forward into discussion: in medium proferre aliquid
    • (ambiguous) to publish, make public: in medio ponere (proponere)
    • (ambiguous) to break off in the middle of the conversation: medium sermonem abrumpere (Verg. Aen. 4. 388)
    • (ambiguous) to be neutral: medium esse
    • (ambiguous) to be neutral: medium se gerere
    • (ambiguous) the centre of the marching column: agmen medium (Liv. 10. 41)
    • (ambiguous) the centre: media acies
    • (ambiguous) let us leave that undecided: hoc in medio relinquamus

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no
Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin medium

Noun[edit]

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

  1. a medium (also in spiritualism)

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun[edit]

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

  1. a medium (also in spiritualism)

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Polish[edit]

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology[edit]

From English medium, from Latin medium.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

medium n

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

Declension[edit]

Declension of medium
singular plural
nominative medium media
genitive medium mediów
dative medium mediom
accusative medium media
instrumental medium mediami
locative medium mediach
vocative medium media

Further reading[edit]

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

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun[edit]

medium n

  1. a medium, a middle part in communication, a substance useful for communication (e.g. aether), a spiritual connection

Declension[edit]

Declension of medium 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative medium mediet medier medierna
Genitive mediums mediets mediers mediernas
Declension of medium (Latin plural)
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative medium mediet media media
Genitive mediums mediets medias medias

Related terms[edit]

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