# medial
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mediālis (“middle”), from medius (“that is in the middle or midst”) +‎ -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmiː.di.əl/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -iːdiəl

### Adjective

medial (comparative more medial, superlative most medial)
* (mathematics) Of or pertaining to a mean or average.
    medial allegation
* Situated in or near the middle; not at either end.
** (anatomy, zootomy) Pertaining to the inside; closer to the median plane of the body or the midline of an organ.
    Coordinate terms: mesial, median
    Antonym: lateral
    The medial side of the knee faces the other knee, while the outer side of the knee is lateral.
** (anatomy) Pertaining to the middle layer of a blood vessel, to its tunica media.
    Mönckeberg medial sclerosis
** (entomology) Of or pertaining to the media and/or the areas of the wing next to it.
** (phonetics, linguistics) (of a speech sound, or a character or sequence thereof) In the middle of a word.
** (phonetics) (of a consonant) Central: produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue.
*** 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
** (linguistics) Closer to the addressee.

#### Coordinate terms

* anterior
* distal
* dorsal
* lateral
* medial
* posterior
* proximal
* ventral

#### Derived terms

* admedial
* alligation medial
* antemedial
* anterodorsomedial
* anteromedial
* antimedial
* basomedial
* bimedial
* buccomedial
* caudomedial
* centromedial
* corticomedial
* craniomedial
* distomedial
* dorsomedial
* ectomedial
* epimedial
* frontomedial
* inferomedial
* intermedial
* labiomedial
* lateromedial
* medial canthus
* medial capital
* medial collateral ligament
* medial cuneiform bone
* medial epicondyle
* medial epicondylitis
* medial geniculate nucleus
* medial graph
* mediality
* medialize
* medial lemniscus
* medial longitudinal fasciculus
* medially
* medial malleolus, medial mal
* medial moraine
* medialmost
* medialness
* medialorbitofrontal
* medial palpebral artery
* medial pterygoid muscle
* medial pterygoid nerve
* medial pterygoid plate
* medial rectus
* medial s
* medial slang
* medialward, medialwards
* medio-
* mesomedial
* nonmedial
* orbitomedial
* paramedial
* plantomedial
* posteromedial, posteriomedial
* posteroventromedial
* postmedial
* premedial
* proximomedial
* radiomedial
* rostromedial
* submedial
* supermedial
* superomedial
* temporomedial
* ventromedial

#### Related terms

* median
* mesial (see explanation of overlap)

#### Translations
### Noun

medial (plural medials)
* Any of various things that occur in the middle.
** One or more letters that occur in the middle of a word.

### References

* “medial”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* “medial”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

### Anagrams

* Imelda, mailed, Deilam, Dameli, maelid

## German
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medialis.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /medˈi̯aːl/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

medial (strong nominative masculine singular medialer, not comparable)
* medial

#### Declension
## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French médial, from Latin medialis.

### Adjective

medial m or n (feminine singular medială, masculine plural mediali, feminine and neuter plural mediale)
* medial

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mediālis. Cf. also meaja.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /meˈdjal/ [meˈð̞jal]
* Rhymes: -al
* Syllabification: me‧dial

### Adjective

medial m or f (masculine and feminine plural mediales)
* medial

#### Derived terms

* medialmente

#### Derived terms

* anteromedial
* inferomedial
* superomedial

### Further reading

* “medial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10