Middle

/[ˈmɨdl̩]/ adj, name, noun, verb

adj, name, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A centre, midpoint.

    "The middle of a circle is the point which has the same distance to every point of circle."

  2. 2
    the middle area of the human torso (usually in front) wordnet
  3. 3
    The part between the beginning and the end.

    "I woke up in the middle of the night."

  4. 4
    an intermediate part or section wordnet
  5. 5
    The middle stump.
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    an area that is approximately central within some larger region wordnet
  2. 7
    The central part of a human body; the waist.

    "If I have a diet plan and stick to it, it is easy for me to have control over my middle."

  3. 8
    the point between the beginning and the end of a temporal period or process wordnet
  4. 9
    The middle voice.
  5. 10
    the center of the political spectrum.

    "As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle."

Verb
  1. 1
    To take a middle view of. obsolete, transitive

    "And now, to middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might reasonably expect in a husband."

  2. 2
    put in the middle wordnet
  3. 3
    To double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle. obsolete, transitive
  4. 4
    To strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat. transitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    Located in the middle; in between. no-comparative

    "the middle point"

  2. 2
    Central. no-comparative
  3. 3
    Pertaining to the middle voice. no-comparative
Adjective
  1. 1
    equally distant from the extremes wordnet
  2. 2
    between an earlier and a later period of time wordnet
  3. 3
    of a stage in the development of a language or literature between earlier and later stages wordnet
  4. 4
    being neither at the beginning nor at the end in a series wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A sheading of the Isle of Man.

Synonyms

All synonyms
centercentremidcentercentralhalfway

Example

More examples

"Holy crap, who's the asshole who dares call me in the middle of the night?!"

Etymology

From Middle English 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.

Related phrases

Hartington Middle QuarterLlangynwyd MiddleLogy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer CoveLow GermanMiddle AgesMiddle AmericaMiddle AmericanMiddle AramaicMiddle ArmMiddle ArmenianMiddle AssameseMiddle Babylonian

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.