# mid

Pronunciation: say "MID" /mɪd/

## Adjective

1. Occupying a position in the middle, whether of a space, a stretch of time, or a series.
   - Simple: In the middle of something, in place or in time.
   - _The engine failed in mid-ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest port._
   - _The physiotherapist traced the ache to his mid back, just below the shoulder blades._
2. Of only average or poor quality; unremarkable and disappointing. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Just okay or not very good, nothing special.
   - _Another summer of mid sequels has left audiences shrugging rather than angry._
   - _The reviews were glowing, but the album itself is just mid: pleasant, forgettable, and over in forty minutes._
5. Of a vowel: pronounced with part of the tongue raised partway toward the palate, midway between high and low, as [e], [o], [ɛ] and [ɔ] are.
   - Simple: Describes a vowel sound made with the tongue halfway up, not high and not low.
   - _Italian keeps more mid vowels than Spanish, contrasting [e] with [ɛ] and [o] with [ɔ]._
   - _The vowel in 'bet' is a mid vowel, since the tongue rises higher than for 'bat' but not as high as for 'beat.'_

## Preposition

4. Used before a noun to mean amid: in the middle of, or surrounded by. *(literary)*
   - Simple: Used before a noun to mean in the middle of or among.
   - _The old chapel stands mid the pines, half hidden from the road._
   - _A lone white tower rose mid the dark and silent hills._

## Noun

6. In online multiplayer games, the middle area of the battlefield. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In online games, the middle part of the area where players fight.
   - _Their sniper has been holding mid for the whole round._
   - _Two of us will push through mid while the others guard the flag._

## Adverb

7. In online multiplayer games, to or into the middle of the battlefield. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In online games, to or into the middle of the area where players fight.
   - _Rotate mid as soon as the round starts and cover the doors._
   - _Their healer keeps drifting mid when she should stay back with the group._

## Noun

3. The middle part or point of something, in space or in time. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The middle part of something.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In disc golf, a mid-range disc, one made for throws of middle distance.
- (preposition) Used in place of with in writing that imitates German-accented English.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 4–7** — Old English midd ("mid, middle, midway") was passed down into Middle English as mid or midde. Earlier stages are Proto-West Germanic *midi and Proto-Germanic *midjaz ("mid, middle"), and further back is Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos, meaning "between, in the middle, middle". Dutch midden, German Mitte, Icelandic miður and Latin medius are relatives. Words like middling and midwit may have shaped the slang sense.
**Meaning 3** — The Old English noun midd ("midst, middle") became Middle English mid or midde. It comes from Proto-Germanic *midją, *midjǭ or *midjô ("middle, center"), and in the end from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos, meaning "between, in the middle, middle". German Mitte, Danish midje and Icelandic miðja are relatives, and median and Latin mediānus are worth comparing.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mid (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).