Also called middle plane. Also called middle ground. Fine Arts. the represented space between the foreground and background in paintings, drawings, etc.
(in track) a race distance ranging from 400 meters or 440 yards to 1 mile.
First recorded in 1805–15
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To the left and right, a dense forest frames the scene, while farther off, in the middle distance, a few lonely plantations and houses can barely be made out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Through the windows, huge grey clouds rose in the middle distance.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2025
“To see this entire world, do this literally: Mold the play into a medium-sized ball, set it before you in the middle distance, and squint your eyes,” she wrote.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
He stared into the middle distance and scrolled through his phone.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
Instead he looked into the middle distance and spoke in generalities, with so delicate an air as to give the impression that he had become partly invisible.
From "1984" by George Orwell
Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Hunter Bell, who chose to switch focus to the shorter of the middle-distance events in pursuit of another global podium, also began with victory, clocking 1:58.82.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2025
Comparisons were drawn to British middle-distance greats Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram as Burgin broke through - doing so at the same time as Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2025
This generation of milers is also supremely talented, of course, forming a new golden age of middle-distance running.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2025
In fact, several forces that were at work when Nuguse and Ingebrigtsen raced have been electrifying all of middle-distance running.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2025
In the middle-distance was a lay-figure in orange, picking scarlet apples from what appeared to be a revolving clothes-horse blossoming profusely at the ends of each beam.
From Hepsey Burke by Westcott, Frank N. (Frank Noyes)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
