• (British) IPA: /ˈmiːdɪən/
• (America) IPA: /ˈmiːdi.ən/

median (plural medians)

1. (anatomy, now rare) A central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm. [from 15th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     Why is not our jugular or throat-veine as much at our command as the mediane {{transterm

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition II, section 5, member 2:

     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.

2. (geometry) A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.
3. (statistics) The number separating the higher half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one (e.g., the median of {3, 3, 5, 9, 11} is 5). If there is an even number of observations, then there is no single middle value; the median is then usually defined to be the mean of the two middle values. [from 19th c.]
4. (US) The median strip; the area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic. [from 20th c.]

• (median strip) central reservation

• mean
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• medium
• mediocre
• mediocrity

• Portuguese: mediano

• German: Seitenhalbierende
• Russian: медиа́на

• French: médiane
• German: Median
• Italian: mediano
• Portuguese: mediana
• Russian: медиа́на
• Spanish: mediana

• French: terre-plein central
• German: Trennstreifen
• Russian: раздели́тельная полоса́
• Spanish: mediana

median (not comparable)

1. Situated in the middle; central, intermediate. [from 16th c.]
2. (anatomy, botany) In the middle of an organ, structure etc.; towards the median plane of an organ or limb. [from 16th c.]
3. (statistics) Having the median as its value. [from 19th c.]

• Portuguese: mediano, central
• Spanish: mediano

• French: médian, médiane
• German: mittler
• Russian: медиа́нный
• Spanish: mediano, mediana

• IPA: /ˈmiːdɪən/

median (not comparable)

1. Relating to Media or Medes. [from 16th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 9, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     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 […].

2. (obsolete) Of laws, rules etc.: unchanging, invariable. [17th-19th c.]
   • 1835, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘King Pest’:

     ‘This proceeding,’ interposed the president, ‘is by no means in accordance with the terms of the mulct or sentence, which is in its nature Median, and not to be altered or recalled.’

   • 1856, Richard F. Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, Könemann 2000, p. 50:

     And if you venture to object to these Median laws, – as I am now doing, – you elicit a chorus of disapproval, and acquire some evil name.

• German: medisch
• Russian: мидийский

median (plural medians)

1. A Mede.

1. The northwestern Old Iranian language of the Medes, attested only by numerous loanwords in Old Persian, few borrowings in Old Armenian and some glosses in Ancient Greek; nothing is known of its grammar.

• Medic

• German: Medisch
• Russian: мидийский