medium

The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.

Adjective

  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).

Origin

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.

Related

mean median mediate mediation mediator mediocre mediocrity

Derived

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 medium scale integration medium shot medium spiny neuron medium term medium wave mediumwave medium well military medium over medium small and medium-sized enterprise

Adverb

  1. To a medium extent.

Synonyms

mediumly

Noun Entry 3

  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.
    • VVhether any other Liquours, being made Mediums, cauſe a Diuerſity of Sound from Water, it may bee tried: […] - 1631, Francis [Bacon], “III. Century. [Experiments in Consort, Touching the Medium of Sounds.]”, in Sylua...
    • 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 extreams, and then remove all Mediums, That each may be...
  3. A format for communicating or presenting information.
    • [A]t all events, she drank in with eager ear, and admiring mind, anecdote and history of all those excellent traits of disposition, and nobleness of conduct, which made him the idol of his describer, and gave her a...
    • Too often writing—in the broadest sense—is treated as a communicational medium where the subjects of that communication are constituted prior to the writing, where the objects of that communication are also constituted...
  4. A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.
    • 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...
  5. A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.
    • The density of the living medium of fishes exerts upon them a mechanical influence; they are, so to say, balanced in water, free to proceed in all planes of direction... - 1895, Bashford Dean., Fishes, Living and Fossil:
  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.
    • Cable TV is an inexpensive advertising medium.
    • 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...
  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).
    • Acrylics, oils, charcoal, and gouache are all mediums I used in my painting.
    • 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. -...
    • 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...
  10. The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.
  11. media) Someone who conveys information from the spirit world.
    • 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. - 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes an Evening in Strange...
  12. A middle place or degree.
    • a happy medium
    • [T]he Just Medium of This Case lies betwixt the Pride, and the Abjection of the Two Extreams. - 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Anianus, &c.] Fab[le] 215. An Oak and a Willow, Reflexion.”, in Fables, of Æsop and...
    • Her height was pretty, […] her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin, […] - 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Emma: […], volume II, London:...

Forms

media mediums

Derived

circumgalactic medium contrast medium intergalactic medium interplanetary medium interstellar medium warm-hot intergalactic medium warm ionized medium cool medium English-medium hot medium mass medium social medium storage medium transmission medium basal medium culture medium Czapek-Dox medium Czapek medium differential medium growth medium LJ medium Löwenstein-Jensen medium minimal medium circulating medium

Noun business, clothing

  1. One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured, smaller than a large but larger than a small.

    Synonyms: M

  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).

Forms

mediums