Borrowed from Latin mediālis, from medius + -ālis.

• IPA: /ˈmiː.di.əl/

medial

1. (math) Of or pertaining to a mean or average.

   medial allegation

2. Situated in or near the middle; not at either end.
   1. (anatomy, zootomy) Pertaining to the inside; closer to the median plane of the body or the midline of an organ.

      The medial side of the knee faces the other knee, while the outer side of the knee is lateral.

      Coordinate terms: mesial, median

      Antonyms: lateral

   2. (anatomy) Pertaining to the middle layer of a blood vessel, to its tunica media.

      Mönckeberg medial sclerosis

   3. (entomology) Of or pertaining to the media and/or the areas of the wing next to it.
   4. (phonetics, linguistics) (of a speech sound, or a character or sequence thereof) In the middle of a word.
   5. (phonetics) (of a consonant) Central: produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue.
      • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC ↗:

        Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   6. (linguistics) Closer to the addressee.

• median
• mesial (see explanation of overlap)

• German: mittel
• Russian: сре́дний
• Spanish: medio

• German: zentral, mittig

• German: medial, median
• Russian: медиа́льный

• German: zentral

medial (plural medials)

1. Any of various things that occur in the middle.
   1. One or more letters that occur in the middle of a word.