golden mean

noun

1. the perfect moderate course or position that avoids extremes; the happy medium.

2. golden section.

golden mean

noun

1. the middle course between extremes

2. another term for golden section

golden mean

1. The desirable middle ground between any two extremes, according to the philosophy of Aristotle.

Word History and Origins

Origin of golden mean¹

First recorded in 1580–90

Example Sentences

And yet, she still recommends Aristotle's "golden mean," which she summarizes as "the right emotion or the right action for the right context in the right amount."

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He’d used an artist’s technique called “the golden mean” to divide the picture into imaginary thirds both vertically and horizontally, like a tic-tac-toe board.

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Mr. Dunwoody showed us how to find the golden mean using proportions and a ruler, but none of us really got it, not even Clive Pike.

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Spago today lands squarely in the golden mean of upscale dining: modern but not exactly modernist; elegant but not stuffy; stimulating but rarely thrilling.

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Yet between rules that are too rigid and no effective rules at all, there is a golden mean.

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