Amid

How to spell amid

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce amid

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amid mean?

1. prepositionIn the middle of or surrounded by something, or against a background of certain conditions.

Amid in a sentence

• The small cottage stood amid rolling fields of wheat.

• The company announced layoffs amid growing financial pressure.

Where does amid come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Amid is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English phrase 'on middan', which literally meant 'in the middle of' or 'among'. The element 'a-' here is a worn-down form of the preposition 'on', and 'mid' carries the ancient Germanic sense of 'middle', a root shared with words like 'midst', 'middle', and 'midnight'. By the Middle English period the phrase had fused into the single forms 'amidde' and later 'amid'. An extended variant, 'amidst', grew up alongside it when writers added a final 't' (the same restless 't' that turned 'among' into 'amongst' and 'while' into 'whilst'). Because the word is so short and regular, its only real spelling pitfall is the temptation to double the d or to confuse it with 'amidst'.

How the word is built

• a- (on, in)
• mid (from Old English midd: middle)