Median Meaning
/ˈmiː.dɪən/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.
nounA line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.
Sentence Examples
Averages come in three flavors: mean, median, and mode.
It is important to know the difference between mean and median.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the sorted list of five numbers 1,2,3,4,100, the ____ is 3.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The economist reported that the ____ household income in the region had increased slightly over the past year.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Why is not our jugular or throat-veine as much at our command as the mediane [translating mediane]?"
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
"The Greeks prescribe the median or middle vein to be opened, and so much blood to be taken away as the patient may well spare, and the cut that is made must be wide enough."
— 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 2:
"Seen from street level, the median was clean most days. From the third floor you peered over the benches and trees and saw the trash crowding the subway ventilation grates and paving stones."
— 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 134:
"Cellariiform, the orifices nearly confined to the convex frontal and lateral surfaces; the basal surface with a strong median calcareous keel, almost concealed by a flat membranous epitheca, which covers the whole zoarium […]"
— 1957, Sidney Frederic Harmer, The Polyzoa of the Siboga Expedition, page 1106:
"Lucullus seeing certaine Median men at armes, which were in the front of Tigranes Army, heavily and unweildily armed, as in an iron prison, apprehended thereby an opinion, that he might easily defeat them[…]."
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 9, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the sorted list of five numbers 1,2,3,4,100, the ____ is 3.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The economist reported that the ____ household income in the region had increased slightly over the past year.