medio
Spanish, noun
medio is spelled M-E-D-I-O (5 letters) and appears 398 times per million words in written Spanish, the 207th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Medio is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “half (any fraction with a denominator of 2)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present indicative of mediar. With an accent, medió is a different word: “third-person singular preterite indicative of mediar”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Modo o instrumento que facilita el logro o aplicación de un objetivo”.
What does medio mean in English?
adjective
- 1
half (of or related to one of two equal divisions of a whole)
media hora
- 2
half (of or related to any large proportion of a whole)
Medio Nueva York fue a los toros.
- 3
middle (placed more or less halfway between two positions, times, or alternatives)
clase media
- 4
average (of or related to the arithmatic middle in a set of values)
velocidad media
- 5
average (of or related to a representative example of a group)
el español medio
- 6
tasteful, bourgeois (well decorated or executed but not sublime)
- 7
mid (of or related to the position of vowel articulation between open and closed)
- 8
middle, mediopassive (of or related to grammatical voices neither active nor passive)
adverb
- 1
half, incompletely (indicating an action interrupted or only partially done)
medio vestido
- 2
half, kind of (particularly used to partially soften negative descriptions)
Es medio idiota.
noun
- 1
masculinehalf (any fraction with a denominator of 2)
- 2
masculinemedio, half-celemin (a traditional unit of dry measure equivalent to about 2.3 L)
- 3
masculinemedio (the usual container used to measure medios)
- 4
masculinemedio, half-real (a former coin)
- 5
masculinemedio, half-peso (a former coin)
- 6
masculinemedio, half-sucre (a former coin)
- 7
masculinemedio, half-balboa (a former coin)
- 8
masculinemedio, half-boliviano (a former coin)
verb
- 1
first-person singular present indicative of mediar
verb
- 1
third-person singular preterite indicative of mediar
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Que es una de las dos partes iguales en que se divide algo. 2. Que está situado en un lugar o tiempo equidistante a los extremos de algo. 3. Que posee las características más generales de un conjunto de elementos. 4. Se dice de un sonido del habla que se articula en la zona central de la boca.
noun: 1. Modo o instrumento que facilita el logro o aplicación de un objetivo. 2. Conjunto de circunstancias o condiciones físicas, químicas, biológicas, que encuentran los seres vivos exteriormente a ellos, que los rodean, donde viven y que intervienen en su funcionamiento y en su evolución. 3. Dedo de la mano del ser humano, entre el índice y el anular. 4. La parte central de algo, en términos espaciales o de tiempo.
adverb: 1. Medianamente.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of medio
- media feminine
- medios masculine plural
- medias feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to medio
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is medio in Spanish?
medio appears 398 times per million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).