different between mean vs medium

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?n, IPA^(key): /mi?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n
• Homophone: mien

Etymology 1

From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English m?nan (“to mean, signify; lament”), from Proto-Germanic *mainijan? (“to mean, think; lament”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”).

Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian m?na (“signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon m?nian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mieni? (“signify, believe”). Related to moan.

Verb

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meant)

1. To intend.
   1. (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]

   2. (intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind. [from 14th c.]

   3. (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. [from 16th c.]

   4. (transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.[1]

2. To convey (a meaning).
   1. (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
   2. (transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify. [from 8th c.]

      • A term should be included if it's likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means. This in turn leads to the somewhat more formal guideline of including a term if it is attested and idiomatic.

   3. (transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.

3. (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). [from 18th c.]

4. (transitive) To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result). [from 19th c.]
5. (usually with to) To be of some level of importance.

   That little dog meant everything to me.

   This shared cup of coffee means something to us.

   Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.

Synonyms

• (convey, signify, indicate): convey, indicate, signify
• (want or intend to convey): imply, mean to say
• (intend; plan on doing): intend
• (have conviction in what one says): be serious
• (have intentions of a some kind):
• (result in; bring about): bring about, cause, lead to, result in

Derived terms

• I mean

Translations

Verb

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meaned)

1. (Ireland, Britain regional) To lament.
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, III:

     Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she my?te.

   • 1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144:

     They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.

   • 1845, Wodrow Society Select Biographies:

     All the tyme of his sickness he never said, "Alace!" or meaned any pain, whilk was marvellous. Never man died in greater peace of mind or body.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English m?ne, ?em?ne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamain?, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”).

Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin comm?nis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem).

Adjective

mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)

1. (obsolete) Common; general.
2. Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.

3. Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.

4. Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.
   • Ivanhoe (1952 film)

     Prince John: "Your foe has bloodied you, sir knight. Will you concede defeat? You fight too well to die so mean a death. Will you not throw in your lot with me instead?

     Ivanhoe: "That would be an even meaner death, Your Grace."

   a mean motive

   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     Can you imagine I so mean could prove, / To save my life by changing of my love?

5. Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
   • 1708, John Philips, Cyder

     The Roman legions and great Caesar found / Our fathers no mean foes.

6. (chiefly Britain) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.

7. Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating
8. Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.

9. Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another

   Synonyms: cruel, malicious

10. Powerful; fierce; strong

    Synonyms: harsh, damaging

11. (colloquial) Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.

12. (informal, often childish) Difficult, tricky.

Synonyms

• (intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise): cruel, malicious, nasty, spiteful
• (miserly; stingy): See also Thesaurus:stingy
• (low-minded; acting without consideration of others): base, ignoble, selfish, unkind, vile
• (powerful): damaging, fierce, harsh, strong
• (accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with): deft, skilful (UK), skillful (US), top-notch
• (inferior): cheap, grotty (slang), inferior, low-quality, naff (UK slang), rough and ready, shoddy, tacky (informal)

Antonyms

• (low-minded; acting without consideration of others): lofty, noble, honorable

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin medi?nus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”). Cognate with mid. For the musical sense, compare the cognate Italian mezzano. Doublet of median and mizzen.

Adjective

mean (not comparable)

1. Having the mean (see noun below) as its value.
2. (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
   • , II.ii.2:

     I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is […].

   • being of middle age and a mean stature

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

mean (plural means)

1. (now chiefly in the plural) A method or course of action used to achieve some result. [from 14th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.5:

     To say truth, it is a meane full of uncertainty and danger.

   • c. 1812, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essays

     You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements.

   • 1860, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics

     Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean.

   • 2011, "Rival visions", The Economist, 14 Apr 2011:

     Mr Obama produced an only slightly less ambitious goal for deficit reduction than the House Republicans, albeit working from a more forgiving baseline: $4 trillion over 12 years compared to $4.4 trillion over 10 years. But the means by which he would achieve it are very different.

2. (obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
   • a. 1563, Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)

     Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.

   • 1606, The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Rob. Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby, at Westminster, for High Treason, being Conspirators in the Gunpowder-Plot

     That it was lawful and meritorious to kill and destroy the king, and all the said hereticks. — The mean to effect it, they concluded to be, that, 1. The king, the queen, the prince, the lords spiritual and temporal, the knights and burgoses of the parliament, should be blown up with powder. 2. That the whole royal issue male should be destroyed. S. That they would lake into their custody Elizabeth and Mary the king's daughters, and proclaim the lady Elizabeth queen. 4. That they should feign a Proclamation in the name of Elizabeth, in which no mention should be made of alteration of religion, nor that they were parties to the treason, until they had raised power to perform the same; and then to proclaim, all grievances in the kingdom should be reformed.

   • a. 1623, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

     Apply desperate physic: / We must not now use balsamum, but fire, / The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean / To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.

3. Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium. [from 14th c.]
   • 1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus,

     It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.

4. (music, now historical) The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument. [from 15th c.]
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, page 147:

     Of these [rattles] they have Base, Tenor, Countertenor, Meane, and Treble.

5. (statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean. [from 15th c.]
6. (mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
   • 1997, Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy,^[3] World Bank Publications, ?ISBN, page 51:

     Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.

   • 2002, Clifford A. Pickover, The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge,^[4] Cambridge University Press, ?ISBN, page 246:

     Luckily, even though the arithmetic mean is unusable, both the harmonic and geometric means settle to precise values as the amount of data increases.

   • 2003, P. S. Bullen, Handbook of Means and Their Inequalities,^[5] Springer, ?ISBN, page 251:

     The generalized power means include power means, certain Gini means, in particular the counter-harmonic means.

7. (mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.
   • 1825, John Farrar, translator, An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix, third edition, page 102,

     ...if four numbers be in proportion, the product of the first and last, or of the two extremes, is equal to the product of the second and third, or of the two means.

   • 1999, Dawn B. Sova, How to Solve Word Problems in Geometry, McGraw-Hill, ?ISBN, page 85,

     Using the means-extremes property of proportions, you know that the product of the extremes equals the product of the means. The ratio t/4 = 5/2 can be rewritten as t:4 = 5:2, in which the extremes are t and 2, and the means are 4 and 5.

   • 2007, Carolyn C. Wheater, Homework Helpers: Geometry, Career Press, ?ISBN, page 99,

     In ${\displaystyle {\frac {18}{27}}={\frac {2}{3}}}$, the product of the means is ${\displaystyle 2\cdot 27}$, and the product of the extremes is ${\displaystyle 18\cdot 3}$. Both products are 54.

Hypernyms

• (statistics): measure of central tendency, measure of location, sample statistic

Coordinate terms

• (statistics): median, mode

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• (statistics): spread, range

Further reading

• mean at OneLook Dictionary Search
• mean in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -mane, -nema, Amen, Eman, Enma, MENA, Mena, NAmE, NEMA, NMEA, amen, mane, mnae, name, namé, neam, ñame

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish medón (“middle, centre”), from Latin medi?nus.

Noun

mean m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. centre, middle

2. interior

3. average

Derived terms

• meanagh (“center, central; intermediate; centric, centrical”, adj)
• mean scoill (“secondary school, college”)

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish menbach (“small”), from a Proto-Celtic derivation of the root *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Latin minus, minor, minutus and Ancient Greek ?????? (minúth?, “lessen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?n/

Adjective

mean

1. little, tiny

Synonyms

• beag
• bìodach
• meanbh
• mion

Derived terms

• mean air mhean

Mutation

Spanish

Verb

mean

1. Second-person plural (ustedes) present indicative form of mear.
2. Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes^?) present indicative form of mear.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium, neuter of medius (“middle”). Compare middle. Cognate with Spanish medio (“middle; half; means, medium, way”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?'di?m, IPA^(key): /?mi?d??m/
• Rhymes: -i?di?m

Noun

medium (plural media or medias or mediums)

1. (plural media or mediums) The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.
3. (plural media or mediums) The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.
   • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, III. Century, p. 60,^[1]

     Whether any other Liquours, being made Mediums, cause a Diuersity of Sound from Water, it may be tried:

   • 1642, John Denham, The Sophy, London: Thomas Walkley, Act II, Scene 1, page 12,^[2]

     He’s old and jealous, apt for suspitions, gainst which tyrants ears

     Are never clos’d. The Prince is young,

     Fierce, and ambitious, I must bring together

     All these extreames, and then remove all Mediums,

     That each may be the others object.

5. (plural media or mediums) A format for communicating or presenting information.
6. (plural media or mediums, microbiology) A nutrient solution for the growth of cells in vitro.
   • 1996, Samuel Baron (editor), Medical Microbiology:

     In some instances one can take advantage of differential carbohydrate fermentation capabilities of microorganisms by incorporating one or more carbohydrates in the medium along with a suitable pH indicator. Such media are called differential media (e.g., eosin methylene blue or MacConkey agar) and are commonly used to isolate enteric bacilli.

7. (plural media or mediums) A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.
   • 2007, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Reprint Services Corporation (?ISBN), page 186:

     His loyalty to the English was doubtful and wavering, and his opposition to Post's journey was probably due to fears that his own importance as a medium between the Ohio Indians and the English would be diminished by the former's success.

8. (plural mediums, spiritualism) Someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
9. (plural mediums or media) A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.
10. (plural mediums or media, painting) A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).

    Acrylics, oils, charcoal, and gouache are all mediums I used in my painting.

    • 1898, Missouri Department of Education, Report of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri, page 98:

      Heretofore in following the course, the student has been confined to black and white in the medium of charcoal, pen and ink or pencil. The first introduction to color is by means of the Still Life painting class.

    • 1966, John P. Sedgwick, Discovering Modern Art: The Intelligent Layman's Guide to Painting from Impressionism to Pop

      It was the woodcut, however, that emerged as the favorite graphic medium of Expressionism. Rejecting the almost limitless pictorial possibilities of lithography, which had dominated printmaking during the nineteenth century, […]

    • 1967, Barnet Kottler, Martin Light, The World of Words: A Language Reader:

      So we get a people in rebellion against a dominant majority, but forced to rebel secretly, to sublimate, as the psychologist would put it — to express themselves culturally through the medium of jaz , and linguistically through a code, a jargon  ...

    • 1974, Karl Siegfried Weimar, German Language and Literature: Seven Essays, Prentice Hall

      Prose is not the preferred medium of expressionism, yet some outstanding individual examples come to mind, for example: Robert Walser's (1876–1956) surrealistic miniatures and novels of a dreamlike structure reminiscent of Kafka […]

    • 1999, Jet, page 29:

      The Pulitzer board said the award was given “in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture.”

11. (plural media or mediums, engineering) The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.
12. (plural mediums) Anything having a measurement intermediate between extremes, such as a garment or container.
13. (plural mediums) A person whom garments or apparel of intermediate size fit.
14. (plural mediums, Ireland, dated, informal) A half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).
15. A middle place or degree.

    a happy medium

    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflexions, London: R. Sare et al., Fable 215. An Oak and a Willow, Reflexion, p. 188,^[4]

      […] the Just Medium of This Case lies betwixt the Pride, and the Abjection of the Two Extreams.

    • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, London: John Murray, Volume 2, Chapter 2, p. 29,^[5]

      Her height was pretty […] her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin […]

    • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, Chapter 44, p. 453,^[6]

      In search of the principle on which joints ought to be roasted, to be roasted enough, and not too much, I myself referred to the Cookery Book […] . But the principle always failed us by some curious fatality, and we never could hit any medium between redness and cinders.

16. (dated) An average; sometimes the mathematical mean.
    • 1769, Edmund Burke, Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: J. Dodsley, p. 13,^[7]

      a medium of six years of war, and six years of peace

17. (logic) The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.

Derived terms

• (microbiology, nutrient solution): differential medium
• (person claiming to convey information from the spirit world): mediumistic, mediumism, mediumship
• (middle place or degree): happy medium, strike a medium

Translations

Adjective

medium (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Arithmetically average.
2. Of intermediate size, degree, amount etc.
3. Of meat, cooked to a point greater than rare but less than well done; typically, so the meat is still red in the centre.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:intermediate

Derived terms

• medium wave, mediumwave

Related terms

• mean
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• median
• mediocre
• mediocrity

Translations

Adverb

medium (comparative more medium, superlative most medium)

1. to a medium extent

Synonyms

• mediumly

References

• medium in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• medium in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• edimmu

Danish

Etymology

From Latin medium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me?di?m/, [?me??d?j?m]

Noun

medium or medie n (singular definite mediet, plural indefinite medier)

1. medium

Inflection

Adjective

medium (neuter medium, plural and definite singular attributive medium)

1. medium

Further reading

• medium on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?me?di?m/

Noun

medium n (plural media, diminutive mediumpje n)

1. means, system or instrument for fulfilling an end
   • 1967, Evert Willem Barth, Moderne logica, Van Gorcum, 138-139.

     Het is zeer aannemelijk dat sommige talen zich er beter toe lenen dan andere, als medium voor het logisch denken dienst te doen.

     It is very probable that some language are more suitable to being used as a medium for logical thinking than others are.

2. (physics) medium which a wave or force traverses
   • 2009, Douglas C. Giancoli, Natuurkunde. Deel 2: Elektriciteit, magnetism, optica en moderne fysica, (tr. by Marianne Kerkhof & Louis Rijk Vertaling, red. by Luc van Hoorebeeke & Jan Rykebusch), Pearson (4th edition), 1100.

     Ze noemden dit transparante medium de ether en gingen ervan uit dat de hele ruimte ervan doordrongen was.

     They called this transparent medium aether and assumed that all of space was completely pervaded by it.

3. (grammar) middle voice
4. (communication, media) means of communication, media outlet
5. (communication) data medium, something that contains data
6. channeler, someone who claims to access the dead

Derived terms

• geluidsmedium
• lichtmedium
• massamedium
• mediopassief
• taalmedium

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: medium

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English medium, from Latin medium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?midi?m/

Noun

medium n (plural mediums)

1. something of medium size

Adjective

medium (not comparable)

1. of medium size
2. (of meat) medium rare

Inflection

Synonyms

• (medium rare): halfgaar

Indonesian

Etymology

• From Dutch medium, from Latin medium.
• Semantic loan from English medium for a measurement intermediate between extremes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [me?di?m]
• Hyphenation: mé?di?um

Noun

medium or médium

1. medium,
   1. anything having a measurement intermediate between extremes.
   2. the means, channel, or agency by which an aim is achieved.
   3. someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
   4. (physics) the materials or empty space through which signals, waves or forces pass.
   5. (biology) a nutrient solution for the growth.
2. (rare) media

Alternative forms

• media

Further reading

• “medium” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?me.di.um/, [?m?d?i???]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?me.di.um/, [?m??d?ium]

Adjective

medium

1. inflection of medius:
   1. masculine accusative singular
   2. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular

Noun

medium n (genitive medi? or med?); second declension

1. middle, center, medium, midst
2. community, public, publicity

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• e medio abeo
• in medio

Descendants

Noun

medium

1. accusative singular of medius
2. genitive singular of medius

References

• medium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• medium in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• medium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[8], London: Macmillan and Co.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium

Noun

medium n (definite singular mediet, indefinite plural medier, definite plural media or mediene)

1. a medium (also in spiritualism)

Derived terms

• kjølemedium
• massemedium

See also

• medie-

References

• “medium” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun

medium n (definite singular mediet, indefinite plural medium, definite plural media)

1. a medium (also in spiritualism)

Derived terms

• kjølemedium
• massemedium

See also

• medie-

References

• “medium” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium.

Noun

medium n

1. a medium, a middle part in communication, a substance useful for communication (e.g. aether), a spiritual connection

Declension

Related terms

• etermedium
• massmedium
• medel
• mediaklimat
• medial