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

As a noun, suppa became soupe in Old French, meaning bread soaked in broth and sowpes in Middle English.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2023

The increasing difficulty of Chaucer’s Middle English is another mark against it at a time when many students find even the language of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Jane Austen too foreign to read.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023

On screen, McClure appeared in Martin Scorsese’s seminal 1978 concert film “The Last Waltz” — perhaps the only rock documentary in which a poet reads lines by the Middle English author Geoffrey Chaucer.

From Los Angeles Times ● 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