medium
pronunciation
How to pronounce medium in British English:
UK [ˈmiːdiəm]
How to pronounce medium in American English:
US [ˈmiːdiəm]
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- Noun:
- a means or instrumentality for storing or communicating information
- the surrounding environment
- an intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication
- (bacteriology) a nutrient substance (solid or liquid) that is used to cultivate micro-organisms
- an intervening substance through which something is achieved
- a liquid with which pigment is mixed by a painter
- (biology) a substance in which specimens are preserved or displayed
- a state that is intermediate between extremes; a middle position
- someone who serves as an intermediary between the living and the dead
- transmissions that are disseminated widely to the public
- an occupation for which you are especially well suited
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- Adjective:
- around the middle of a scale of evaluation of physical measures
- (of meat) cooked until there is just a little pink meat inside
Word Origin
- medium
- medium: [16] Latin medius meant ‘middle’ (it came from an Indo-European source that also produced English mid and middle). Its neuter form, used as a noun, has given English medium, but it has made several other contributions to the language, including mean ‘average’, medial [16], median [16], mediate [16] (and its derivatives immediate [16] – etymologically ‘acting directly, without any mediation’ – and intermediate [17]), medieval [19] (literally ‘of the Middle Ages’), mediocre, meridian, mitten, and moiety.Its Italian descendant is mezzo ‘half’, which has given English intermezzo [19], mezzanine [18], mezzosoprano [18], and mezzotint [18].=> immediate, intermezzo, mean, median, mediate, middle, mitten
- medium (n.)
- 1580s, "a middle ground, quality, or degree," from Latin medium "the middle, midst, center; interval," noun use of neuter of adjective medius (see medial (adj.)). Meaning "intermediate agency, channel of communication" is from c. 1600. That of "person who conveys spiritual messages" first recorded 1853, from notion of "substance through which something is conveyed." Artistic sense (oil, watercolors, etc.) is from 1854. Happy medium is the "golden mean," Horace's aurea mediocritas.
- medium (adj.)
- 1660s, "average," from medium (n.). The Latin adjective was medius. Meaning "intermediate" is from 1796. As a size designation from 1711. as a designation of cooked meat, it is attested from 1931, short for medium-rare (1881).
Antonym
Example
- 1. But the ipad changed all that , introducing a new medium on which to publish content .
- 2. The mobile medium itself is emotional and personal -- to a much larger extent than any other medium .
- 3. This is new medium of art .
- 4. But the trail has been blazed by another medium .
- 5. Demographics are important over the medium and long term .