midst
1 Americannoun
-
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.
-
the middle point, part, or stage.
We arrived in the midst of a storm.
idioms
preposition
noun
-
surrounded or enveloped by; at a point during, esp a climactic one
-
among us
-
archaic the centre
preposition
Related Words
See middle.
Etymology
Origin of midst
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, equivalent to middes (aphetic variant of amiddes “in the middle”) + excrescent -t; see also amidst
Explanation
Midst describes something that's among, in the middle of, or surrounded by. After the school talent show, your principal said he didn't know there were so many gifted singers in our midst. Midst sounds a lot like mist, the fog that rolls in and can fill a place. Midst carries this same sense of being surrounded or placed in the middle of. It can be physical, like being in the midst of great athletes at the hockey game, or in regard to time, like the team captain breaking his foot in the midst of playoffs.
Vocabulary lists containing midst
Lesson 12
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Unit 3, Week 2
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Bye Forever, I Guess
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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.
"The WHO had to, and was able to, undergo profound reform in the midst of the emergency."
From Barron's • May 18, 2026
The Netherlands is in the midst of its own heated public debate on assisted dying, which has spilled into the Canadian committee hearings.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
Maybe some choose to marvel at this one-in-a-lifetime behemoth stuck in our midst and ignore the stink.
From Salon • May 14, 2026
It became a darling of the stock market in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, surging almost 149% that year, FactSet data showed.
From MarketWatch • May 13, 2026
Would they throw us out of the Royal Presence in the midst of a musical selection?
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
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.
