Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To resolve or settle (differences) by working with all the conflicting parties.
  • intransitive verb To bring about (a settlement, for example) by working with all the conflicting parties.
  • intransitive verb To effect or convey as an intermediate agent or mechanism.
  • intransitive verb Physics To convey (a force) between subatomic particles.
  • intransitive verb To work with two or more disputants in order to bring about an agreement, settlement, or compromise.
  • intransitive verb To settle or reconcile differences.
  • intransitive verb To have a relation to two differing persons, groups, or things.
  • adjective Acting through, involving, or dependent on an intervening agency.
  • adjective Being in a middle position.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Situated between two extremes; lying in the middle; intermediate; intervening.
  • Acting as a means or medium; not direct or immediate in operation; not final or ultimate.
  • Effected by or due to the intervention of a mean or medium; derived from or dependent upon some intervening thing or act; not primary, direct, or independent.
  • To occupy an intermediate place or position; be interposed; have the position of a mean.
  • To have the function of a mean or means; effect a connection between other things, or a transition from one to the other.
  • To intervene for the purpose of reconciliation; act as an intermediary for the settlement of a disagreement or discord; intercede.
  • To take an intermediate stand; act moderately; avoid extremes.
  • In spiritualism, specifically, to act as a medium.
  • Synonyms See interposition.
  • To effect by intervention, interposition, or any intermediary action.
  • To effect a relation between or a transition from, as between two things, or from one thing to another; bring into relation by some intervening means or process.
  • To harmonize; reconcile; settle, as a dispute, by intervention.
  • To further by interceding, or by acting as a mediator.
  • To divide into two equal or approximately equal parts.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Being between the two extremes; middle; interposed; intervening; intermediate.
  • adjective Acting by means, or by an intervening cause or instrument; not direct or immediate; acting or suffering through an intervening agent or condition.
  • adjective Gained or effected by a medium or condition.
  • transitive verb To effect by mediation or interposition; to bring about as a mediator, instrument, or means.
  • transitive verb rare To divide into two equal parts.
  • intransitive verb rare To be in the middle, or between two; to intervene.
  • intransitive verb To interpose between parties, as the equal friend of each, esp. for the purpose of effecting a reconciliation or agreement.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to resolve differences, or to bring about a settlement, between conflicting parties
  • verb intransitive to intervene between conflicting parties in order to resolve differences or bring about a settlement
  • verb To divide into two equal parts.
  • adjective acting through a mediating agency
  • adjective intermediate between extremes

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb occupy an intermediate or middle position or form a connecting link or stage between two others
  • verb act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
  • adjective acting through or dependent on an intervening agency
  • adjective being neither at the beginning nor at the end in a series

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin mediāre, mediāt-, to be in the middle, from Latin medius, middle; see medhyo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin mediatus, past participle of mediare ("to divide in the middle, in Medieval Latin also to be in the middle, be or become between, mediate"), from medius ("middle").

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