plural medias
often attributive
1
a
singular or plural in construction
: mass media
b
medias plural
: members of the mass media (such as news outlets)
2
: a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression
Air is a media that conveys sound.
especially
: medium sense 2a
Is media singular or plural?: Usage Guide
The singular media and its plural medias seem to have originated in the field of advertising over 70 years ago; they are still so used without stigma in that specialized field. In most other applications media is used as a plural of medium. The popularity of the word in references to the agencies of mass communication is leading to the formation of a mass noun, construed as a singular.
there's no basis for it. You know, the news media gets on to something
—
Edwin Meese 3d
Edwin Meese 3d
the media is less interested in the party's policies
—James Lewis, Guardian Weekly
James Lewis, Guardian Weekly
This use is not as well established as the mass-noun use of data and is likely to incur criticism especially in writing.
plural mediae
ˈmē-dē-ˌē 
1
[Late Latin, from Latin, feminine of medius; from the voiced stops' being regarded as intermediate between the tenues and the aspirates]
: a voiced (see voiced sense 2) stop (see stop entry 2 sense 1b)
2
[New Latin, from Latin]
: the middle coat of the wall of a blood or lymph (see lymph sense 2) vessel consisting chiefly of circular muscle fibers
media
3 of 3plural of medium
Examples of media in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Austin Carr, Bloomberg, 21 Apr. 2026
One year after Naqvi’s arrest at Heathrow, a media exposé into the working practices at a branch of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital in Nakuru, a sleepy town three hours’ drive from the Kenyan capital, gave a sense of the pressures staff were under during the final months of Abraaj’s ownership.
—Hettie O'Brien, The Dial, 21 Apr. 2026
The plots of these shows usually center on a murder, which occurs not so much to end a human life as to inconvenience our star, who must postpone a brunch or a media event to conceal an inconvenient corpse.
—Libby Gelman-Waxner, New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2026
The move underlines D’Amaro’s emphasis on streaming, but the company has moved out of international physical-media markets in recent years, killed its Disney Movie Club in 2024, and later that year announced a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to outsource disc production and distribution.
—Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 20 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for media
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Noun
Benoit says his American subscribers can’t get enough of the sleek, affordable vehicles from Chinese brands including BYD, Xiaomi and Zeekr that flood their social media feeds—yet aren’t for sale in the US.
—Austin Carr, Bloomberg, 21 Apr. 2026
One year after Naqvi’s arrest at Heathrow, a media exposé into the working practices at a branch of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital in Nakuru, a sleepy town three hours’ drive from the Kenyan capital, gave a sense of the pressures staff were under during the final months of Abraaj’s ownership.
—Hettie O'Brien, The Dial, 21 Apr. 2026
The plots of these shows usually center on a murder, which occurs not so much to end a human life as to inconvenience our star, who must postpone a brunch or a media event to conceal an inconvenient corpse.
—Libby Gelman-Waxner, New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2026
The move underlines D’Amaro’s emphasis on streaming, but the company has moved out of international physical-media markets in recent years, killed its Disney Movie Club in 2024, and later that year announced a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to outsource disc production and distribution.
—Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 20 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for media
Cite this Entry
“Media.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/media. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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