median

noun

1. (archaic)A central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.

   “Why is not our jugular or throat-veine as much at our command as the mediane [translating mediane]?”

   “The Greeks prescribe the median or middle vein to be opened, and so much blood to be taken away as the patient may well spare, and the cut that is made must be wide enough.”

2. A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.
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 is then usually defined to be the mean of the two middle values.
4. (US)The area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic.

   “Seen from street level, the median was clean most days. From the third floor you peered over the benches and trees and saw the trash crowding the subway ventilation grates and paving stones.”

5. A Mede.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Situated in a middle, central, or intermediate part, section, or range of (something).
2. (not-comparable)In the middle of an organ, structure etc.; towards the median plane of an organ or limb.

   “Cellariiform, the orifices nearly confined to the convex frontal and lateral surfaces; the basal surface with a strong median calcareous keel, almost concealed by a flat membranous epitheca, which covers the whole zoarium […]”

3. (not-comparable)Having the median as its value.
4. (not-comparable)Relating to Media or Medes.

   “Lucullus seeing certaine Median men at armes, which were in the front of Tigranes Army, heavily and unweildily armed, as in an iron prison, apprehended thereby an opinion, that he might easily defeat them[…].”

5. (not-comparable, obsolete)Of laws, rules etc.: unchanging, invariable.

   “‘This proceeding,’ interposed the president, ‘is by no means in accordance with the terms of the mulct or sentence, which is in its nature Median, and not to be altered or recalled.’”

   “And if you venture to object to these Median laws, – as I am now doing, – you elicit a chorus of disapproval, and acquire some evil name.”

name

1. The northwestern Old Iranian language of the Medes, attested only by numerous loanwords in Old Persian, few borrowings in Old Armenian and some glosses in Ancient Greek; nothing is known of its grammar.