Middle English

American  

noun

1. the English language of the period c1150–c1475. ME, M.E.

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Middle English British  

noun

1. ME. the English language from about 1100 to about 1450: main dialects are Kentish, Southwestern (West Saxon), East Midland (which replaced West Saxon as the chief literary form and developed into Modern English), West Midland, and Northern (from which the Scots of Lowland Scotland and other modern dialects developed) Compare Old English Modern English

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Middle English Cultural  

1. The English language from about 1150 to about 1500. During this time, following the Norman Conquest of England, the native language of England — Old English — borrowed great numbers of words from the Norman French of the conquerors. Middle English eventually developed into modern English.

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Many of the writings in Middle English that have survived have word forms very different from those in modern English; today's readers of English cannot understand the language of these works without training. Some dialects of Middle English, however, resemble modern English, and a good reader of today can catch the drift of something written in them. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in one of these dialects.

Etymology

Origin of Middle English

First recorded in 1830–40

Compare meaning

How does middle-english compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Old English vs. Middle English

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Middle English

Norman invaders mounted a French vocabulary on a Germanic chassis to create Middle English, but the old survived amid the new.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

Mr. Heylin said he once found Mr. Johnson backstage during a soundcheck reading “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” a 14th-century romance written in Middle English.

From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2022

A series of stories told by a group of travellers, in Chaucer's Middle English, takes readers on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket in Canterbury.

From Salon ● Jan. 9, 2021

He appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film “The Last Waltz,” about the final concert of the rock group The Band, coming onstage to recite a portion of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” in Middle English.

From Washington Post ● May 7, 2020

To faze is to disconcert or embarrass; it comes from a Middle English word, fesen, which meant “drive away” or “put to flight.”

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner