mean#

mean n 1 *average, median, norm, par

2 Mean, instrument, instrumentality, agent, agency, medium, organ, vehicle, channel denote a person or thing through or by which work is performed or an end is effected.

Mean, usually in the form means which may be either singular or plural in construction, is the most general of these words; it may be applied not only to persons and to such concrete things as implements, tools, and machines, but also to their actions or operations; it may also be applied to methods, policies, devices, and strategies

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the habit of regarding the laboring class as a mere means to the maintenance of the rest— Dickinson

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the manufacturer who doesn't look into every possible way and mean to show . . . where he may practically and economically find new business— Harry Martin

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the justification of barbarous means by holy ends— Muller

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the principal means of transportation was . . . Afghan camels— Hoover

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Instrument is applied especially to persons who merely carry out another's will or intention, often as tools, sometimes as dupes

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he . . . turned on me . . . suspecting perhaps that I only wished to make an instrument of him— Hudson

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if they [judges] were to be used as the instruments, and the knowing instruments, for violating what they swear to support— John Marshall

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When applied to concrete things, instrument often derives connotations from its musical sense (as susceptibility to manipulation and responsiveness to touch or use)

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he knew his brain was now a very uncertain instrument, sometimes quite good, sometimes a weary fount of halfformed ideas— H. G. Wells

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Instrumentality is interchangeable with means but not with instrument because its chief implication is effective action by, or effective use of, the instrument

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through the instrumentality of the police he was able to locate his relatives

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without the instrumentality of a free press liberty could not be preserved

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Agent is applied chiefly to persons and only by extension to things; the term usually names the one who does the work as distinguished from the one who wills, plans, or orders

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I often think, Jean, how you were an unconscious agent in the hands of Providence when you recalled me from Tucson— Gather

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ultimately these tattooed devils . . . were turned into effective agents for the maintenance of law and order— Heiser

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When applied to a thing, agent names what effects a desired result or serves as a cause producing a definite effect

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the cooling agent in making ice cream is a mixture of ice and rock salt

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Agency, like instrumentality, is not usually interchangeable with its related noun (agent)for it names the activity or operation of the agent or of something used to produce an effect. It is distinguished from instrumentality by its implication of causative, as opposed to effective, activity

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some communicable diseases are transmitted only through the agency of vermin or insects

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presumptuous thoughts that would assign mechanic laws to agency divine— Wordsworth

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Medium is more often applied to things than to persons; it designates especially a substance or material through which something, usually something intangible, is conveyed from one person or thing to another or given objective form

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air is the medium through which sound and light waves are transmitted

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language is the medium through which a person communicates his thoughts and feelings

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the sculptor's medium may be bronze, marble, or wood

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An organ is a part or representative that performs a particular function

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the political cartoon is one of the greatest organs of propaganda— Harmsworth

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or accomplishes a particular end

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the cabinet's function as a general organ of government without special regard to the king's wishes— Times Lit. Sup.

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or presents a particular point of view (see under JOURNAL).

A vehicle is a medium that serves to carry and especially to carry effectively something which is to be revealed through it

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the play was an excellent vehicle for the genius of Booth

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we must find a new form of verse which shall be as satisfactory a vehicle for us as blank verse was for the Elizabethans— T. S. Eliot

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A channel is a medium that provides either an outlet or a fixed course through which something may flow from one to another

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the accident which directed my curiosity originally into this channel— Lamb

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submitting material to the Defense Department without going through the prescribed Army channels— N. Y. Times

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Analogous words: *method, mode, manner, way, fashion, system: machinery, apparatus, *equipment, paraphernalia

3 in plural form means resources, assets, effects, *possessions, belongings

Analogous words: *money, cash, currency: riches, wealthiness, affluence, opulence (see corresponding adjectives at RICH)

mean adj average, median, par (see under AVERAGE n)

Antonyms: extreme