midst

¹

[midst]

noun

1. the position of anything surrounded by other things or parts, or occurring in the middle of a period of time, course of action, etc..

   a familiar face in the midst of the crowd;

   in the midst of the performance.

   Synonyms: heart, core, thick
   Antonyms: periphery, edge

2. the middle point, part, or stage.

   We arrived in the midst of a storm.

   Synonyms: heart, core, thick
   Antonyms: periphery, edge

midst

²

[midst]

preposition

1. amidst.

midst

¹

/ mɪdst /

noun

1. surrounded or enveloped by; at a point during, esp a climactic one

2. among us

3. archaic,  the centre

midst

²

/ mɪdst /

preposition

1. poetic,  See amid

Word History and Origins

Origin of midst¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, equivalent to middes (aphetic variant of amiddes “in the middle”) + excrescent -t; amidst

Word History and Origins

Origin of midst¹

C14: back formation from amiddes _amid

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. in our / your / their midst, in the midst of or among us (you, them).

   To think there was a spy in our midst!

Synonym Study

See middle.

Example Sentences

In the midst of Belém’s COP30 bedlam, environmentalists, economists, lobbyists and diplomats busily haggle at the global climate conference about what we can and cannot get away with in negotiations over Mother Nature.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But A’zion ended up doing a self-tape in the middle of the night in Bucharest in the midst of filming the horror movie “Until Dawn.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins, was there last month in the midst of all those headlines about the collapsed spying trial.

Read more on BBC

Even in the midst of this beauty, Autumn and I are exchanging glares.

Read more on Literature

The painting showed an old man in cracked spectacles standing beside a lame horse, in the midst of a homestead that had burned to the ground, so that only the smoking ruins remained.

Read more on Literature