English Reference
Adjective

medial

adj.
C1 Advanced US /ˈmidiəɫ/ UK /mˈiːdiːəl/ me·di·al UK spelling medials Anatomy Linguistics Mathematics

adj.situated in the middle or toward the center of something. In medicine, it describes a part of the body that is closer to the middle line.

adj.situated in or pertaining to the middle; in anatomy, specifically relating to the midline of an organism or the inner side of a limb.


SIMPLE

The medial part of the knee often feels the most pressure.

CONTEXTUAL

The surgeon made a small incision on the medial side of the ankle to repair the damaged ligament.

COMPLEX

In phonetics, a medial consonant is one that occurs in the middle of a word, contrasting with those found in initial or final positions.

Usage

Often used in technical or medical contexts to specify location relative to a center point; typically precedes the noun it modifies.


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

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level C1 · Advanced
Frequency Frequent
Updated