Media

[MsNyree]

Is media plural or singular?

 

[susiedqq]

media is plural and means all the possibilities (TV, books, newspapers, magazines, internet, etc.) It is almost always used with a "the"

The media is very interested in Brittney Spears.

Singular is medium.

The internet is a recent medium everyone uses now.

 

[mykwyner]

Technically, media is the plural of medium, just like data is the plural of datum. Sometimes, through common usage, the Latinate plurals become English singulars as in the case of opera, which was once the plural of opus, and candelabra, which was once the plural of candelabrum.

 

[rewboss]

media is plural [...]

The media is [...]

Oops? :lol:

As well as Latin words becoming singular in English, as mykwyner says, words from other languages have also undergone similar changes. From Italian, for example, we have "graffiti" and "spaghetti".

There's even an English word that has gone from plural to singular: "News" means "new things", but nobody now ever says, "Are the news good?"