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PlainSpell

medium

/ˈmiː.di.əm/noun, adjective, adverb

medium is spelled M-E-D-I-U-M: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 41 times per million words in written English, the 2,438th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “media vs medium” about 880 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, medium means “The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of medium is media or mediums.

How many letters and syllables are in medium?

Letters6: M-E-D-I-U-M
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing41 times per million words; the 2,438th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is medium?

Medium appears 41 times per million words in written English, the 2,438th 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 medium?

  • /ˈmiː.di.əm/

Medium 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: En-us-medium.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with medium

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

media vs medium880 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with medium?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as medium.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: dummie.

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 medium

  • media plural
  • mediums plural

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

What does medium mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.

  2. 2

    The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.

  3. 3

    A format for communicating or presenting information.

  4. 4

    A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.

  5. 5

    A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.

  6. 6

    A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.

    Cable TV is an inexpensive advertising medium.

  7. 7

    The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.

  8. 8

    A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.

  9. 9

    One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured, smaller than a large but larger than a small.

  10. 10

    An item labelled or denoted as being that size.

  11. 11

    One who fits an item of that size.

  12. 12

    IrelanddatedinformalA half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteArithmetically average.

  2. 2

    Of intermediate size, degree, amount etc.

  3. 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.

  4. 4

    That is medium (the manufactured size).

adverb

  1. 1

    To a medium extent.

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

How do you abbreviate medium?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of medium: LSM, M.

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

Medium in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmilieu (nature of the surrounding environment), médium, support (material or empty space through which signals…), média (format for communicating or presenting…), moyen (item of the size medium), demi-anglais (cooked lightly)
GermanMedium (nature of the surrounding environment), mittelgroß (of intermediate size)
Portuguesemeio (nature of the surrounding environment), no ponto, ao ponto (cooked lightly), médio (nutrient solution for the growth of cells in…), mediador (means, channel or agency by which an aim is…)
Spanishmedio (nature of the surrounding environment), vehículo (format for communicating or presenting…), mediano (of intermediate size), mitad (nutrient solution for the growth of cells in…), médium (someone who supposedly conveys information from…)

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 medium come from?

Borrowed from Latin medium, neuter of medius (“middle”), from Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). Compare middle. Doublet of mid, medio, media, and meson.

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

What to look up after medium