Middle

How to spell middle

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce middle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does middle mean?

1. adjectivePositioned at or near the centre, equally distant from the edges or ends.
2. nounThe central point, part, or position of something, between its extremes.

Middle in a sentence

• adjective

  Her office is on the middle floor of the building.

• noun

  A large oak table stood in the middle of the room.

• adjective

  The middle child often acts as a peacemaker between siblings.

• noun

  She woke in the middle of the night to a strange noise.

Where does middle come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English middel, meaning 'the centre' or 'the part equally distant from the extremes', which in turn grew from the older root midd, simply meaning 'mid' or 'central'. It belongs to a wide Germanic family: Dutch has middel and German has Mittel, all tracing back to the same ancestral root that also gave Latin its medius and Greek its mesos, both meaning 'middle'. The double 'd' has been part of the spelling since the earliest English records, and the final '-le' is a common ending that turned the bare root into a settled noun and adjective. The word has been in continuous everyday use since well before the Norman Conquest, which is why it feels so plain and native. Its many relatives, from 'midst' and 'amid' to 'meddle' (originally 'to mix in the middle of things'), all share that central idea of being between two ends.

How the word is built

• midd- (from Old English midd: mid, central)
• -le (forming a noun/adjective denoting position)