media

Multiple Entries:
  media    medium  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
media1 /ˈmiːdɪə/

▶noun

• 1 plural form of medium.

• 2 [treated as sing. or pl.] the main means of mass communication (especially television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively.

usage: The word media comes from the Latin plural of medium. The traditional view is that it should therefore be treated as a plural noun in all its senses in English. In practice, in the sense ‘television, radio, and the press collectively’, it behaves as a collective noun (like staff or clergy, for example), which means that it is acceptable in standard English for it to take either a singular or a plural verb.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
media2 /ˈmiːdɪə/

▶noun (pl. mediae /-dɪiː/) Anatomy an intermediate layer, especially in the wall of a blood vessel.

– origin C19: shortening of mod. L. tunica (or membrana) media ‘middle sheath (or layer)’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
medium/ˈmiːdiəm/

▶noun (pl. media or mediums)

• 1 an agency or means of doing something.

  ■ the material or form used by an artist, composer, or writer.

• 2 a substance through which sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted.

• 3 a particular form of storage material for computer files, such as magnetic tape or discs.

• 4 a liquid (e.g. oil) with which pigments are mixed to make paint.

• 5 (pl. mediums) a person claiming to be able to communicate between the dead and the living.

• 6 the middle quality or state between two extremes.

• 7 the substance in which an organism lives or is cultured.

▶adjective between two extremes; average.

– derivatives
mediumism noun,
mediumistic adjective,
mediumship noun.

– origin C16: from L., lit. ‘middle’.