Middletown

¹

[mid-l-toun]

noun

(sometimes lowercase)

1. a typical American town or small city with traditional values and mores.

Middletown

²

[mid-l-toun]

noun

1. a township in E New Jersey.

2. a city in SW Ohio, on the Miami River.

3. a city in central Connecticut, on the Connecticut River.

4. a city in SE New York.

5. a town in SE Rhode Island.

6. a town in E Pennsylvania.

Other Word Forms

• Middletowner noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Middletown¹

After a pseudonymously named town studied in a book with the same title (1929) by U.S. sociologists Robert S. Lynd (1892–1970) and Helen Merrell Lynd (1896–1982); the town actually studied was Muncie, Ind.

Example Sentences

MIDDLETOWN, Pa.—Forty-six years have passed since America’s worst nuclear accident, at Three Mile Island, jolted the country and created skepticism of nuclear energy.

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In Middletown, businessman Justin Hoak, 37, said Constellation, which plans to restart the reactor in 2027, had already contacted him.

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Middletown, a quiet borough of about 9,500 people, sits on the Susquehanna River roughly 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania capital.

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It was then that Middletown burst onto television screens worldwide and became synonymous with “Three Mile Island.”

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Lifelong Middletown resident Ian Reddinger, 37, recalls relatives telling war stories about surviving the accident, but the businessman and borough council member now looks forward to a promised economic upswing.

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