Midfield

How to spell midfield

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce midfield

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does midfield mean?

1. nounThe central area of a sports pitch, or the players who operate in that area.

Midfield in a sentence

• The team struggled to control the midfield for most of the match.

• A clever pass from midfield set up the opening goal.

Where does midfield come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Midfield is a transparent compound of two very old native English words. The first element, mid, descends from the Old English midd, meaning 'middle' or 'central', a word shared across the Germanic family and ultimately related to Latin medius 'middle'. The second element, field, comes from the Old English feld, which originally meant open country or cleared land rather than a sports ground, and which is a cousin of the Dutch veld and German Feld. The modern combined sense, the central zone of a playing area and the players who operate there, grew up alongside organised team sports in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially football. Because both parts are everyday words joined without any linking letter, the only real spelling point is remembering that it is written solid as one word, with the single 'd' of mid sitting directly against the 'f' of field.

How the word is built

• mid- (middle)
• field (open ground, playing area)