middle

English Online Dictionary. What means middle‎? What does middle mean?

English

Alternative forms

• myddle (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”).

Cognate with West Frisian middel, Dutch middel, German mittel (“middle”, adjective), German Mittel (“middle, means”, noun), Danish middel (“means, agent, medicine; middle/medium”). Related also to Swedish medel (“means, medium”), Icelandic meðal (“means, medicine”). See also mid.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪdəl/, [ˈmɪ.ɾɫ̩]
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪdəl/, [ˈmɪ.dəɫ], [ˈmɪ.dʊ]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪdəl/, [ˈmɪ̝.dəɫ], [ˈmɪ̝.dʊ], [ˈmɪ̝.ɾ-]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmɘdɘl/, [ˈmə.dɯ(ɫ)], [ˈmə.ɾ-]
• Rhymes: -ɪdəl

Noun

middle (plural middles)

1. A centre, midpoint.

2. The part between the beginning and the end.
3. (cricket) The middle stump.
4. The central part of a human body; the waist.
5. (grammar) The middle voice.
6. (politics) the center of the political spectrum.

   As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.

Synonyms

• (centre): centre, center, midpoint; see also Thesaurus:midpoint
• (part between the beginning and the end): centre, center, midst

Translations

Adjective

middle (not comparable)

1. Located in the middle; in between.

   the middle point

   middle name, Middle English, Middle Ages

2. Central.
3. (grammar) Pertaining to the middle voice.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:intermediate

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

middle (third-person singular simple present middles, present participle middling, simple past and past participle middled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To take a middle view of. [17th–18th c.]
2. (obsolete, nautical, transitive) To double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle. [19th c.]
3. (cricket, transitive) To strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat.

Middle English

Adjective

middle

1. inflection of middel:
   1. weak singular
   2. strong/weak plural