Medial

How to spell medial

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce medial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does medial mean?

1. adjectiveSituated in or near the middle of something.

Medial in a sentence

• The surgeon described the injury to the medial part of the knee.

• The medial side of the ankle was bruised after the fall.

Where does medial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin medius, which simply meant 'middle' or 'central'. From that base, Late Latin formed the adjective medialis to describe something situated in the middle, and English adopted it in the sixteenth century for technical and anatomical use. The same Latin root sits inside a whole family of familiar words, including 'medium', 'mediate', 'median', and even 'mean' in the mathematical sense, all of them circling the idea of a midpoint. The spelling keeps the Latin medi- stem intact, which is the easiest way to remember it: think 'middle' plus '-al', not the unrelated 'medical' from medicus 'physician'. That close resemblance to 'medical' is the main reason careful writers slow down on this word.

How the word is built

• medi- (from medius: middle)
• -al (adjective suffix)