Definition of "median" in English

noun

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

2. (geometry) A line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.

3. (statistics) 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.

adjective

1. (anatomy) Situated in a middle, central, or intermediate part, section, or range of (something).

2. (anatomy, botany) In the middle of an organ, structure etc.; towards the median plane of an organ or limb.

3. (statistics) Having the median as its value.