midst
/mɪdst/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.89 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A place in the middle of something; may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.
Literary
prep
Example Sentences
- "Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels."
- "At dawn, in the midst of a mist that is both literal and the unformed shifting of thought, he encounters a young fox pup playfully shaking a bone."
- "As he said in "I Have a Dream," the Negro "lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.""
- "Mildred comes home from work early only to discover her husband, Robert, midst of a lewd affair with their neighbor, Gladys."
- "She puts the period often from his place ; And 'midst the sentence so her accent breaks"
Etymology
From Middle English middes, midst, myddest (“middle”), from Old English midde, reshaped in Middle English phrases like in middes (“in the middle”) by analogy with adverbs in -(e)s; also compare Old English on middan, tōmiddes. Forms in -(e)st are probably due to influence of superlatives.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: middes, midde
Usage
Inflected Forms
midsts (plural)
midest (alternative)
middest (alternative)
middis (alternative)
middst (alternative)
myddest (alternative)
mydest (alternative)
myddis (alternative)
myddst (alternative)
mydst (alternative)