middle distance
noun
the represented space between the foreground and background in paintings, drawings, etc.
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middle distance
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middle-distance
middle-distanceadjectiveathletics relating to or denoting races of a length between the sprints and the distance events, esp the 800 metres and the 1500 metres
middle distance
Americannoun
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Also called middle plane. Also called middle ground. Fine Arts. the represented space between the foreground and background in paintings, drawings, etc.
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(in track) a race distance ranging from 400 meters or 440 yards to 1 mile.
middle-distance
British
adjective
noun
Etymology
Origin of middle distance
First recorded in 1805–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
As a teen, Fraire spent three years on the Burbank High School track team as a middle distance runner and four years on the school’s cross-country team, frequently ranking in top spots during meets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
It has been especially relevant to athletics, in which South African middle distance runner Caster Semenya - who was born with DSD condition 46 XY 5-ARD - twice won Olympic 800m gold.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2024
After hearing the bad news, Mr. Hill walks in a daze on the ship’s deck, eyes lost in the middle distance, the official regalia of his captain’s outfit rendered absurd.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2024
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
Her spectacular arrival on the British middle-distance scene has changed everything.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 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
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
He was like a middle-distance runner with a clear and commanding advantage with the bell sounding, only to stumble on his laces.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2024
As the Victorian galloped into the darkness, and the New South Welshman dashed wildly after the third horse, the laughing jackass in the invisible middle-distance gave his last grotesque guffaw at departed day.
From Stingaree by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
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.
