median

See also: Median, médian, medían, and medián

English

Finding the median in sets of data with an odd and even number of values.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French median, from Latin medianus (“of or pertaining to the middle”, adjective), from medius (“middle”) (see medium), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”). Doublet of mean and mizzen. Cognate with Old English midde, middel (“middle”). More at middle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːdɪən/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːdi.ən/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

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.]
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames 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) 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.]

Synonyms

• (median strip): central reservation

Hypernyms

• quantile

Coordinate terms

• (statistics): median (2-quantile), tercile/tertile (3), quartile (4), quintile (5), sextile (6), septile (7), octile (8), decile (10), hexadecile (16), ventile/vigintile (20), centile/percentile (100)

Related terms

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

Translations

central vein or nerve

• Finnish: keskihermo (median nerve)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: mediano (pt) m

geometry: line segment joining vertex and midpoint of opposing side

• Danish: median c
• German: Seitenhalbierende (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: súlyvonal (hu)
• Irish: meánlíne f

statistics: measure of central tendency

• Belarusian: медыя́на f (mjedyjána)
• Bulgarian: медиа́на f (mediána)
• Catalan: mediana f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中位數／中位数 (zh) (zhōngwèishù), 中位数 (zh) (zhōngwèishù)

• Czech: medián m
• Dutch: mediaan (nl)
• Esperanto: mediano
• Finnish: mediaani (fi)
• French: médiane (fr) f
• German: Median (de) m
• Greek: διάμεσος (el) f (diámesos)
• Icelandic: miðgildi n, miðtala f
• Ido: mediano (io)
• Irish: airmheán m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: mediano (it) m
• Japanese: 中間数 (ちゅうかんすう, chūkansū), 中央値 (ja) (ちゅうおうち, chūōchi), 中位数 (ちゅういすう, chūisū)
• Korean: 중간값 (junggan'gap), 중위수 (jung'wisu)
• Maori: toharite
• Polish: mediana (pl) f
• Portuguese: mediana (pt) f
• Russian: медиа́на (ru) f (mediána)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: medìjān (sh) m

• Spanish: mediana (es) f
• Swedish: median (sv) c
• Tagalog: gitnaan
• Ukrainian: медіа́на f (mediána)
• Welsh: canolrif (cy) m

area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic

• Catalan: mitjana (ca) f
• Dutch: middenberm (nl)
• Finnish: keskikaista
• French: terre-plein central
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Trennstreifen m
• Greek: διαχωριστική νησίδα f (diachoristikí nisída)
• Irish: lárthearmann m
• Spanish: mediana (es) f

Adjective

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.]

Derived terms

• median line
• median strip

Translations

situated in the middle

• Finnish: keskeinen (fi), keski- (fi)
• Portuguese: mediano (pt), central (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: mediano (es)

having the median as its value

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中位 (zh) (zhōngwèi)

• Czech: mediánový
• Dutch: mediaan (nl)
• Finnish: mediaani- (fi)
• French: médian (fr) m, médiane (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: mittler (de)
• Greek: μεσαίος (el) (mesaíos)
• Russian: медиа́нный (ru) (mediánnyj)
• Spanish: mediano (es) m, mediana (es) f

See also

• average
• mean
• mode

Anagrams

• Damien, Maiden, Manide, Medina, Midean, aidmen, demain, maenid, maiden, mained, medina, meidan

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Esperanto

Adjective

median

1. accusative singular of media

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Finnish

Noun

median

1. (deprecated template usage) genitive singular of media

Anagrams

• maiden

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Spanish

Verb

median

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

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Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medianus; cf. English median.

Noun

median c

1. median value

Declension

Declension of median
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	median	medianen	medianer	medianerna
Genitive	medians	medianens	medianers	medianernas

Related terms

• medianvärde