In mathematics, a median algebra is a set with a ternary operation satisfying a set of axioms which generalise the notion of median or majority function, as a Boolean function.
The axioms are
The second and third axioms imply commutativity: it is possible (but not easy) to show that in the presence of the other three, axiom (3) is redundant. The fourth axiom implies associativity. There are other possible axiom systems: for example the two
also suffice.
In a Boolean algebra, or more generally a distributive lattice, the median function satisfies these axioms, so that every Boolean algebra and every distributive lattice forms a median algebra.