Middle Definition

mĭdl
middle, middles, middling
adjective
Halfway between two given points, times, limits, etc.; also, equally distant from all sides or extremities; in the center; mean.
Webster's New World
Being at neither one extreme nor the other, as of a sequence or scale; intermediate.
The middle decades of the century.
American Heritage
In between; intermediate; intervening.
Webster's New World
Of or relating to a division of geologic time between an earlier and a later division.
The Middle Paleozoic.
American Heritage
Denoting the voice or form of a verb whose subject is represented as acting reflexively, or upon itself: in Greek, such verbs are usually passive in grammatical form.
Webster's New World
noun
middles
A point or part halfway between extremes; middle point, part, time, etc.
Webster's New World
Something intermediate.
Webster's New World
The middle part of the body; waist.
Webster's New World
Webster's New World
The middle voice.
Webster's New World
verb
middle, middles, middling
To place in the middle.
American Heritage
To put in the middle.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
idiom
in the middle
  • In a difficult situation:

    caught in the middle of a controversy.

  • Engaged in doing something:

    I'm in the middle of making dinner.

American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Middle

Noun

Singular:
middle
Plural:
middles

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Middle

  • in the middle

Origin of Middle

  • From Middle English middel, from Old English middel, middle (“middle, centre, waist"), from Proto-Germanic *midilÄ…, *medalÄ… (“middle"), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst") (cf. *midjaz (“mid, middle", adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *medhy- (“middle, midst"), cf. *médÊ°yos (“between, in the middle, middle"). Cognate with West Frisian middel, Dutch middel, German mittel (“middle", adjective), German Mittel (“middle, means", noun), Danish middel (“means, agent, medicine"). Related also to Swedish medel (“means, medium"), Icelandic meðal (“means, medicine"). See also mid.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English middel from Old English medhyo- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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