The term "medial" refers to something that is situated in the middle or center of a structure. In anatomy, it often describes a position closer to the midline of the body compared to other structures. For example, the medial side of the knee is the inner part, while the lateral side is the outer part. In linguistics, "medial" can describe sounds or syllables that occur in the middle of a word. For instance, in the word "basket," the "sk" sound is considered medial. Understanding medial positions is important in various fields, including medicine and language studies.