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PlainSpell

median

/ˈmi.di.ən/noun, adjective

median is spelled M-E-D-I-A-N: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, median means “A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of median is medians.

How many letters and syllables are in median?

Letters6: M-E-D-I-A-N
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is median?

Median appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce median?

  • UK /ˈmiː.di.ən/
  • US /ˈmi.di.ən/
  • Australia /ˈmiː.di.ən/

Median has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-median.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-median.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Median.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with median?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as median from its last stressed vowel (/idiən/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: maiden, medina, demain.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of median

  • medians plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does median mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    archaicA central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.

  2. 2

    A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.

  3. 3

    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

  4. 4

    USThe area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic.

adjective

  1. 1

    Situated in a middle, central, or intermediate part, section, or range of (something).

  2. 2

    In the middle of an organ, structure etc.; towards the median plane of an organ or limb.

  3. 3

    Having the median as its value.

adjective

as Median
  1. 1

    Relating to Media or Medes.

  2. 2

    obsoleteOf laws, rules etc.: unchanging, invariable.

noun

as Median
  1. 1

    A Mede.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate median?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of median: med.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Median in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portuguesemediano (central vein or nerve), mediana (statistics: measure of central tendency), central (situated in the middle)
Frenchmédiane (geometry: line segment joining vertex and…), médian (having the median as its value)
GermanMedian (statistics: measure of central tendency), Seitenhalbierende (geometry: line segment joining vertex and…), mittler (having the median as its value), medisch (relating to Media or Medes)
Spanishmediana (statistics: measure of central tendency), mediano (situated in the middle)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does median come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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