Middle Definition

mĭdl

middle, middles, middling

adjective

Halfway between two given points, times, limits, etc.; also, equally distant from all sides or extremities; in the center; mean.

Webster's New World

Being at neither one extreme nor the other, as of a sequence or scale; intermediate.

The middle decades of the century.

American Heritage

In between; intermediate; intervening.

Webster's New World

Of or relating to a division of geologic time between an earlier and a later division.

The Middle Paleozoic.

American Heritage

Denoting the voice or form of a verb whose subject is represented as acting reflexively, or upon itself: in Greek, such verbs are usually passive in grammatical form.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

noun

middles

A point or part halfway between extremes; middle point, part, time, etc.

Webster's New World

Something intermediate.

Webster's New World

The middle part of the body; waist.

Webster's New World

Middle term.

Webster's New World

The middle voice.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

verb

middle, middles, middling

To place in the middle.

American Heritage

To put in the middle.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
mediatize

idiom

in the middle

In a difficult situation:
caught in the middle of a controversy.
Engaged in doing something:
I'm in the middle of making dinner.

American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Middle

Noun

Singular:

middle

Plural:

middles

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Middle

in the middle

Origin of Middle

From Middle English middel, from Old English middel, middle (“middle, centre, waist"), from Proto-Germanic *midilÄ…, *medalÄ… (“middle"), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst") (cf. *midjaz (“mid, middle", adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *medhy- (“middle, midst"), cf. *médÊ°yos (“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"). Related also to Swedish medel (“means, medium"), Icelandic meðal (“means, medicine"). See also mid.

From Wiktionary
Middle English middel from Old English medhyo- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition