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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

middle.

A centre, midpoint.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɪdl̩/UK[ˈmɪ.dəɫ]UK[ˈmɪ.dʊ]UK[ˈmɨdl̩]General-South-African
  1. A centre, midpoint.

    The middle of a circle is the point which has the same distance to every point of circle.
  2. The part between the beginning and the end.

    I woke up in the middle of the night.
    In the middle of the marathon, David collapsed from fatigue.
  3. The middle stump.

  4. The central part of a human body; the waist.

  5. The middle voice.

  6. the center of the political spectrum.

    As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.
  7. An essay on social or literary issues in a newspaper or magazine, originally placed between the leading articles and the reviews.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *midjō Proto-Germanic *-ilą Proto-Germanic *midlą Old English middel Middle English myddel English middle From Middle English myddel, middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Middel (“middle”), West Frisian mul (“middle”), Dutch middel (“means; medicine, cure”), German mittel (“middle”, adjective), Mittel (“means; medicament, remedy”, noun), Luxembourgish Mëttel (“means, method; medicament”), Vilamovian mytuł (“middle”), Yiddish מיטל (mitl, “middle”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk middel (“means”), Icelandic meðal (“average; means, medicine”), Swedish medel (“average, mean, middle”). See also mid.

adj/ˈmɪdl̩/UK[ˈmɪ.dəɫ]UK[ˈmɪ.dʊ]UK[ˈmɨdl̩]General-South-African
  1. Located in the middle; in between.

    no-comparative
    the middle point
    middle name, Middle English, Middle Ages
  2. Central.

    no-comparative
  3. Pertaining to the middle voice.

    no-comparative
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *midjō Proto-Germanic *-ilą Proto-Germanic *midlą Old English middel Middle English myddel English middle From Middle English myddel, middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Middel (“middle”), West Frisian mul (“middle”), Dutch middel (“means; medicine, cure”), German mittel (“middle”, adjective), Mittel (“means; medicament, remedy”, noun), Luxembourgish Mëttel (“means, method; medicament”), Vilamovian mytuł (“middle”), Yiddish מיטל (mitl, “middle”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk middel (“means”), Icelandic meðal (“average; means, medicine”), Swedish medel (“average, mean, middle”). See also mid.

verb/ˈmɪdl̩/UK[ˈmɪ.dəɫ]UK[ˈmɪ.dʊ]UK[ˈmɨdl̩]General-South-African
  1. To take a middle view of.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle.

    obsolete · transitive
  3. To strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *midjō Proto-Germanic *-ilą Proto-Germanic *midlą Old English middel Middle English myddel English middle From Middle English myddel, middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Middel (“middle”), West Frisian mul (“middle”), Dutch middel (“means; medicine, cure”), German mittel (“middle”, adjective), Mittel (“means; medicament, remedy”, noun), Luxembourgish Mëttel (“means, method; medicament”), Vilamovian mytuł (“middle”), Yiddish מיטל (mitl, “middle”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk middel (“means”), Icelandic meðal (“average; means, medicine”), Swedish medel (“average, mean, middle”). See also mid.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.