different between medium vs mediums

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

English

Noun

mediums

1. plural of medium

Anagrams

• dummies

Danish

Noun

mediums n

1. indefinite genitive singular of medium

Swedish

Noun

mediums

1. indefinite genitive singular of medium