Word
mid
US/ˈmɪd/
UK/mˈɪd/
Definitions
01middle position
adj. being in the middle of something.
adj. occupying a middle position in space, time, or a sequence.
“The mid-morning sun was already quite hot by ten o'clock.”
“The company released its mid-year financial report, showing a steady increase in revenue despite the challenging market conditions.”
Usage
Often used as a prefix or in hyphenated compounds like 'mid-August' or 'mid-range'.
Synonyms
02mediocre or average
adj. not very good; just okay or boring.
adj. of mediocre or middling quality; neither excellent nor terrible.
“I thought the new movie was pretty mid, to be honest.”
“Despite the massive marketing campaign, most critics dismissed the album as mid, noting a lack of original production.”
Slang · Informal
Teaching tip
This sense is very common in internet culture and among younger speakers; it is often used as a mild insult for something disappointing.
Synonyms
03vowel sound
adj. a sound made with the tongue in the middle of the mouth.
adj. produced with the tongue positioned midway between the roof of the mouth and the floor.
“The letter 'e' in 'met' is an example of a mid vowel.”
“Phonetic analysis reveals that the speaker uses a slightly higher mid vowel than is typical for this specific regional dialect.”
Technical
04middle of a battlefield
n. the center area of a map in a video game.
n. the central lane or area of the map in multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games.
“Our team needs to defend mid before the enemy reaches the base.”
“The player successfully controlled mid for the duration of the match, preventing the opposing team from coordinating their attacks.”
Slang
Synonyms
05among or during
prep. in the middle of an event or a place.
prep. in the middle of; amid.
“He stood mid the falling leaves in the quiet park.”
“Mid the confusion of the retreating army, the young officer struggled to maintain order among his remaining troops.”
Literary · Archaic
Real-World Examples
“At this time last summer (mid August), the number was 303.” Etymology
From Proto-Indo-European médʰyos ("between, in the middle"), through Proto-Germanic midjaz and Proto-West Germanic midi, into Old English midd and Middle English mid, midde. Cognates include Dutch midden, German Mitte, Icelandic miður, and Latin medius. The slang sense, denoting something mediocre or unremarkable, appears to be a recent formation influenced by middling and midwit*.
From Old English midd, a noun meaning "midst" or "middle", descended through Proto-Germanic midją from Proto-Indo-European médʰyos. The German cognate Mitte preserves the same root.
Clipping of mid-range.
From or representing German mit, and/or perhaps German Low German mid. Although Middle English had a native preposition mid with this same meaning ("with"), it had fallen out of general use by the mid 1400s and survived into the modern English period only in sporadic use and the compounds midwife and theremid.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/mid