median

/ˈmidiən/

/ˈmidijɪn/

Other forms: medians

Median means middle. When a strip of grass divides one direction of a highway from another, it's called a median because it runs through the middle.

Median comes from the Latin word medius, which also means middle. In math, the median is a number in the middle of a list. In the set 2, 3, 5, 10, 25, the median is 5. The statistical median is often linked to the idea of an average. A town's average income might seem high if there are two extremely rich people who live there. The median will tell you the income of the person halfway through the list.

Definitions of median

1. adjective

   relating to or situated in or extending toward the middle
   synonyms: medial

   central

   in or near a center or constituting a center; the inner area
2. adjective

   relating to or constituting the middle value of an ordered set of values (or the average of the middle two in a set with an even number of values)
   “the median value of 17, 20, and 36 is 20”

   “the median income for the year was $15,000”

   synonyms: average

   normal

   conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm; not abnormal
3. adjective

   dividing an animal into right and left halves
   synonyms: medial

   mesial

   being in or directed toward the midline or mesial plane of the body
4. noun

   the value below which 50% of the cases fall
   synonyms: median value

   type of:

   average, norm

   a statistic describing the location of a distribution
5. noun

   a paved or landscaped dividing area between opposing lanes of travel on a highway
   type of:

   area

   a part of a structure having some specific characteristic or function
6. noun

   (geometry) a line segment from a vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side