Midway

How to spell midway

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce midway

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does midway mean?

1. adverbAt or near the middle point of a distance, span of time, or process.
2. nounThe central area of a fair or carnival lined with games, rides, and food stalls.

Midway in a sentence

• adverb

  The petrol station sits midway between the two towns.

• noun

  The children spent their tokens on games along the midway at the county fair.

• adverb

  She abandoned the project midway through the second year.

• noun

  Bright lights and barkers filled the crowded midway after dark.

Where does midway come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, formed straightforwardly from two old Germanic words: 'mid', from Old English 'midd', meaning middle or central, and 'weg', meaning a path, road, or course of travel. The Old English phrase 'on midne weg' literally described being on the middle of the road or partway along a journey, and over time it fused into a single word describing the halfway point of any distance or span. The 'mid' element is the same one that gives us 'midnight', 'midday', and 'amid', while 'way' survives unchanged in countless modern words. In American English the word also took on a particular noun sense in the late nineteenth century, naming the central avenue of sideshows and amusements at a fair, after the famous Midway Plaisance at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The spelling is wholly transparent once you see the two plain English parts, with no silent letters to trip over.

How the word is built

• mid (middle)
• way (path, distance)