Borrowed from Middle French median, from Latin mediānus, from medius ("middle") (see medium), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos.

• (British) IPA: /ˈmiː.dɪən/
• (America) IPA: /ˈmi.di.ən/
• (Australia) IPA: /ˈmiː.dɪən/, [ˈmɪi.di.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, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:

     Why is not our jugular or throat-veine as much at our command as the mediane [translating mediane]?

   • 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:

     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) A number separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, population, or probability distribution. 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.]

   Coordinate terms: medial, mean, average

4. (US) The area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic; the median strip. [from 20th c.]

• (median strip) central reservation

• mean
• medial
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• medium
• mediocre
• mediocrity
• mesial (see explanation of overlap)

• Portuguese: mediano

• French: médiane
• German: Seitenhalbierende
• Russian: медиа́на

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

median (not comparable)

1. (anatomy) Situated in a middle, central, or intermediate part, section, or range of (something). [from 16th c.]

   Coordinate terms: medial, mesial

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

From Media + -n.

• 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, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:

     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]
   • 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.’

• 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