Mediator

How to spell mediator

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce mediator

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mediator mean?

1. nounA neutral person who helps two opposing sides reach an agreement.

Mediator in a sentence

• The divorcing couple hired a mediator to divide their assets fairly.

• A trained mediator guided the two departments toward a workable compromise.

Where does mediator come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb mediare, meaning 'to be in the middle' or 'to divide in half', which was built on the adjective medius, meaning simply 'middle' or 'in the centre'. From this came the Latin noun mediator, used for someone who stands between two parties to bring them together. The term entered English in the 1300s through religious writing, where Christ was described as the mediator between God and humankind, and only later broadened to its everyday legal and workplace sense of a neutral third party who settles disputes. The same medius root quietly powers a whole family of familiar words, including 'medium', 'medieval', 'median' and 'immediate' (literally 'with nothing in the middle'). For spelling, it helps to picture the 'medi' middle and the 'ate' you find in the verb 'mediate', since the agent ending is simply -or rather than -er.

How the word is built

• medi- (from Latin medius: middle)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -or (agent noun: one who does)