1. Equally distant from extremes or limits; central: the middle point on a line.
2. Being at neither one extreme nor the other; intermediate.
3. 1. Intervening between an earlier and a later period of time; being an intermediate part of a sequence or series: the middle years.
   2. Middle Geology. Of or relating to a division of geologic time between an earlier and a later division: the Middle Paleozoic.
4. Middle Of or relating to a stage in the development of a language or literature between earlier and later stages: Middle Swedish.
5. Grammar. Of, relating to, or being a verb form or voice in which the subject both performs and is affected by the action specified.

1. An area or a point equidistant between extremes; a center: the middle of a circle.
2. Something intermediate between extremes; a mean.
3. The interior portion: the middle of a chain.
4. The middle part of the human body; the waist.
5. Logic. A middle term.
6. Grammar.
   1. The middle voice.
   2. A verb form in the middle voice.

1. To place in the middle.
2. Nautical. To fold in the middle: middle the sail.

[Middle English middel, from Old English.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.