median
/ˈmiː.dɪən/
"median" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“median” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,591 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,591
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | median |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmiː.dɪən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,591 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “median” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for median is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmiː.dɪən/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,591 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for median, with forms such as "emdian", "mdeian", and "medain". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Mein", "Megan", "medic", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French median, from Latin mediānus (“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 (“mi… The correct English form is median, spelled M-E-D-I-A-N.
Definition
- 1A central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.
- 2A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.
- 3A 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.
- 4The area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French median, from Latin mediānus (“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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emdian,mdeian,medain,meddian,mediann,meidan,mmedian
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of median - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “median”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-D-I-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmiː.dɪən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Mein” - see the side-by-side comparison. median vs Mein
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.