mediastinum
/ˌmiːdi.əˈstaɪnəm/noun
mediastinum is a noun meaning “The region in mammals between the pleural sacs, containing the heart and all of the thoracic viscera except the lungs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-E-D-I-A-S-T-I-N-U-M, and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of mediastinum is mediastina.
What does mediastinum mean?
noun
- 1
The region in mammals between the pleural sacs, containing the heart and all of the thoracic viscera except the lungs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce mediastinum?
- /ˌmiːdi.əˈstaɪnəm/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of mediastinum
- mediastina plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is mediastinum?
Mediastinum appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 119,826th 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).
Mediastinum in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the region in mammals:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | médiastin |
| German | Mediastinum |
| Spanish | mediastino |
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 mediastinum come from?
From New Latin mediastīnum, from Medieval Latin mediastīnus (“middling; middle”), from Latin mediastīnus (“a common servant”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).