Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "middle distance" [middle distance]

  • The area between the foreground and background in a painting, drawing, or photograph. Also called middle ground. (noun)
  • Sports A division of competition in racing with events usually ranging from 400 meters to 1,500 meters or from 440 yards to 1 mile. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "middle distance" in a sentence
  • "There were random scars of tire tracks and a tarmac road that ended in the middle distance at South-10,000, the control bunker six miles away that would fire the bomb."
  • "In the middle distance ahead of her she could see the summits of Bulbarrow and of Nettlecombe Tout, and they seemed friendly."
  • "In the majority of instances, however, the middle distance and foreground to these is not the scenery of the higher Alps, with its abrupt contrasts, its monotonous vesture of fir or pine forests clothing the mountain sides, and its relatively harsh and cold colouring, but the richer vegetation of the Friulan mountains in their lower slopes, or of the beautiful hills bordering upon the overflowing richness of the Venetian plain."