"Cropped" sensors

We often hear about "cropped" sensors in digital cameras, and sometimes about "crop" cameras (so called because they have "cropped" sensors).

What is a cropped sensor?

It is a sensor smaller than the largest sensor ordinarily found among cameras of the same family (in the sense that, for example, the Canon EOS series is a "family").

Sometimes it means a sensor smaller than the largest sensor ordinarily found among cameras of a different, but somehow comparable, family.

The term is mostly limited in use (thankfully) to cameras in families having direct or indirect descendance from families initially consisting of full-frame 35-mm film cameras, so it generally means a sensor smaller than 36 x 24 mm.

Best regards,

Doug

But "medium format" is a cropped format.. plus there are to many medium formats.. 6x6, 6x7, 6x6.45
I think the micro 4/3 sounds more confusing than it is.. 1/2 frame 35mm
Besides it really doesn't matter. I really hate it when lens people put 35mm equivalent on the lens.. Just tell me what it really is.. I'll figure the 'equivalent'..............