Amongst

How to spell amongst

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce amongst

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amongst mean?

1. prepositionIn the middle of, surrounded by, or in the company of a group of people or things.

Amongst in a sentence

• The missing keys turned up amongst the papers on her desk.

• Morale was high amongst the staff after the pay rise.

Where does amongst come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the Old English phrase on gemang, which literally meant 'in a mingling' or 'in a crowd', built from the verb mengan, 'to mix or mingle'. Over time the phrase fused into the single word amang or among, carrying the sense of being surrounded by or in the company of others. During the Middle English period a genitive form 'amonges' developed, and to that an extra -t was tacked on, giving 'amongst'; this added -t is the same intrusive sound that turned 'amids' into 'amidst' and 'whils' into 'whilst'. That stray -t is exactly the spelling trap, because nothing in the pronunciation of 'among' prepares a writer for it, and the two forms mean precisely the same thing. The -st variant has always felt slightly more formal or literary, and it survives more strongly in British and Canadian writing than in American.

How the word is built

• a- (in, on, from Old English on)
• mong (a mingling, crowd, from gemong)
• -st (excrescent ending added to the older 'amonges')