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GeezerVison is showing en.wiktionary.org — between - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Alternative forms

  • betweene, betwene (archaic)
  • b/w, btwn, btw (abbreviation)

Etymology

PIE word
*dwóh₁

From Middle English betwene, from Old English betwēonum (“between, among”, dative plural, literally “by the two, near both”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”) + *twīhnaz (“two each”), corresponding to be- +‎ twain. Cognate with Scots between (“between”), Scots atween (“between”), Gothic 𐍄𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌹 (tweihnai, “two each”), Old English betweoh (“between”), Old English twinn (“double, twofold”). More at betwixt, twin.

More distantly related to Ancient Greek διά (diá, “through, across, by, over”) whence English dia- (“through, across, between”).

For the meaning development also compare with Mongolian хооронд (xoorond, “between”), connected with Mongolian хоёр (xojor, “two”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /bɪˈtwiːn/
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA(key): /bɪˈtwɪjn/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /bəˈtwin/, /bɪˈtwin/, [bɪˈtʰwin], /biˈtwin/[1]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: be‧tween
  • Rhymes: -iːn

Preposition

The green pepper is between the white rectangles.

between

  1. In the position or interval that separates (two things), or intermediate in quantity or degree. (See Usage notes below.)
    John stood between Amy and Mary.    Let’s meet between two and three.
    I want to buy one that costs somewhere between forty and fifty dollars.
    • [c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], signature G2, recto:
      The prince is here at hand, pleaſeth your Lordſhip / To meet his grace iuſt diſtance tvveene our armies.]
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
    • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
      Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.
    • 2017 April 17, Rachel Monroe, “#Vanlife, the Bohemian Social-Media Movement”, in The New Yorker‎[2], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 August 2017:
      Accounts with between fifty thousand and two hundred thousand followers are considered “microinfluencers,” and tend to have higher engagement rates—that is, a larger share of their followers like, favorite, or comment on their posts—than those with millions of followers.
  2. Done together or reciprocally.
    conversation between friends
    • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
      She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.
  3. Shared in confidence.
    Between you and me, I think the boss is crazy.  Let's keep this between ourselves.
  4. In transit from (one to the other, or connecting places).
    He's between jobs right now.  The shuttle runs between the town and the airport.
    • 2020, Lisa Lerer, “This Is Not the Debate We Wanted”, in The New York Times‎[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      [If] you don’t want to flip the channels between Biden and Trump, join [the] live chat, [which is covering] both town halls.
      (Can we archive this URL?)
  5. Combined (by effort or ownership).
    Between us all, we shall succeed.  We've only got £5 between us.
    Between the leaky taps and the peeling wallpaper, there isn't much about this house to appeal to a buyer.
  6. One of (representing a choice).
    You must choose between him and me.
    Some colour-blind people can't distinguish between red and green.
  7. Taking together the combined effect of.
    Between the food and the card games, this proved to be the best birthday party I have ever had.

Usage notes

  • It is sometimes said that between usually applies to two things, while among applies to more than two things. According to the Oxford English Dictionary: "In all senses, between has been, from its earliest appearance, extended to more than two. In OE and ME, it was so extended in sense 1, in which among is now considered better. It is still the only word available to express the relation of a thing to many surrounding things severally and individually, among expressing a relation to them collectively and vaguely: we should not say ‘the space lying among the three points,’ or ‘a treaty among three powers,’ or ‘the choice lies among the three candidates in the select list,’ or ‘to insert a needle among the closed petals of a flower’".[2]

Synonyms

  • atween (archaic)
  • atwix (dialectal)
  • atwixt (archaic)
  • betwixt (archaic)
  • betwixte (archaic)

Derived terms

  • betweenane
  • between a rock and a hard place
  • between decks
  • betweenhood
  • betweenity
  • between jobs
  • between-maid
  • betweenness
  • between ourselves
  • between Scylla and Charybdis
  • between-seasons jacket
  • between-step
  • between-subjects
  • between the devil and the deep blue sea
  • between the ears
  • between the hammer and the anvil
  • between the jigs and the reels
  • between the lines
  • between the pegs
  • between the pipes
  • between the sheets
  • between the sticks
  • between-time
  • between time
  • between times
  • between two stools
  • betweenwhiles
  • between wind and water
  • between you and I
  • between you and me
  • between you and me and the bedpost
  • between you and me and these four walls
  • betwixt and between
  • bit between one's teeth
  • caught between two stools
  • come between
  • create daylight between oneself and someone
  • drive a wedge between
  • fall between the cracks
  • fall between two stools
  • few and far between
  • get between
  • go-between
  • go between
  • in between
  • in-between
  • in-between hop
  • in between jobs
  • in between times
  • keep it between the ditches
  • know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
  • know the difference between one's ass and one's elbow
  • mean distance between failure
  • nothing to choose between
  • put daylight between oneself and someone
  • read between the lines
  • rose between two thorns
  • stand between
  • step between
  • sympathy is between shit and syphilis
  • tail-between-one's-legs
  • tail between one's legs
  • therebetween
  • there's many a slip between the cup and the lip
  • tween
  • tweenager
  • wherebetween

Translations

in the position or interval that separates two things
  • Akan: ntam
  • Albanian: midis (sq), ndërmjet (sq)
  • Amharic: በ - መካከል (bä - mäkakäl)
  • Arabic: بَيْنَ (ar) (bayna)
    Egyptian Arabic: بين (bēn)
    Hijazi Arabic: بين (bēn)
    Najdi Arabic: بين (bēn)
  • Aragonese: entre
  • Armenian: միջև (hy) (miǰew)
  • Aromanian: ntrã
  • Assamese: -অৰ মাজ- (-or maz-) (with locative, genitive, dative or instrumental suffix depending on the context)
  • Asturian: ente (ast)
  • Azerbaijani: arasında (az)
  • Bashkir: араһында (arahïnda)
  • Belarusian: памі́ж (pamíž)
  • Bengali: মধ্যে (bn) (moddhe), মাঝে (bn) (majhe)
  • Bulgarian: между́ (bg) (meždú)
  • Burmese: ကြား (my) (kra:)
  • Catalan: entre (ca)
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 之間 / 之间 (zh) (zhījiān), 間 / 间 (zh) (jiān)
  • Czech: mezi (cs)
  • Danish: mellem (da)
  • Dutch: tussen (nl)
  • Egyptian:
    Z11mZ4t
    W
    (jmjtw)
  • Esperanto: inter (eo)
  • Estonian: vahel
  • Extremaduran: entri
  • Farefare: tẽŋasʋka, tɩŋasʋka
  • Faroese: millum, ímillum
  • Finnish: välissä (fi), keskellä (fi)
  • French: entre (fr)
  • Frisian:
    West Frisian: tusken
  • Friulian: tra, fra, jenfri
  • Galician: entre (gl), ontre
  • Georgian: შორის (šoris)
  • German: zwischen (de)
  • Greek: ανάμεσα (el) (anámesa), μεταξύ (el) (metaxý)
    Ancient Greek: μεταξύ (metaxú)
  • Gujarati: વચ્ચે (vacce)
  • Hebrew: בֵּין (he) (bēn)
  • Hiligaynon: tunga, sa gintung-an
  • Hindi: ... के बीच (hi) (... ke bīc)
  • Hungarian: között (hu)
  • Icelandic: á milli (is)
  • Ido: inter (io)
  • Indonesian: di antara, antara (id)
  • Ingrian: välis (location), välil (time)
  • Irish: idir
  • Italian: tra (it), fra (it)
  • Japanese: …の間に (ja) (no aida ni (のあいだに))
  • Kapampangan: pilatan
  • Kazakh: ортасында (ortasında)
  • Khmer: រវាង (km) (rawīəng)
  • Korean: 가운데에 (ko) (gaunde-e), 사이에 (ko) (sai-e), 간에 (ko) (gan-e)
  • Kurdish:
    Central Kurdish: لەبەینی ... دا (lebeynî ... da), نێوان (nêwan)
    Northern Kurdish: di navbera ... de
  • Kyrgyz: ортосунда (ky) (ortosunda)
  • Ladino: entre
  • Lao: ລະຫວ່າງ (la huāng)
  • Latin: inter (la)
  • Latvian: starp, vidū
  • Luxembourgish: tëschent (lb)
  • Macedonian: меѓу (meǵu), измеѓу (izmeǵu)
  • Malay: di antara, antara (ms)
  • Maltese: bejn
  • Mongolian: хооронд (mn) (xoorond), дундуур (mn) (dunduur)
  • Navajo: bitaʼgi
  • Norwegian: mellom (no)
  • Occitan: entre (oc)
  • Old Church Slavonic:
    Cyrillic: междоу (meždu)
  • Old English: betweox, betweoh
  • Pashto: تر منځ (ter mentz)
  • Persian: بین (fa) (beyn), میان (fa) (miyân)
  • Polish: pomiędzy (pl), między (pl)
  • Portuguese: entre (pt)
  • Romanian: între (ro)
  • Russian: ме́жду (ru) (méždu), меж (ru) (mež), посреди́ (ru) (posredí), среди́ (ru) (sredí)
  • Scots: atween
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic: и̏змеђу, међу
    Latin: ȉzmeđu, među
  • Slovak: medzi
  • Slovene: med (sl)
  • Somali: dhexda
  • Sorbian:
    Lower Sorbian: mjazy
    Upper Sorbian: mjez (hsb), mjezy (hsb)
  • Spanish: entre (es)
  • Sranan Tongo: mindri
  • Swedish: mellan (sv)
  • Tagalog: gitna (tl)
  • Tajik: байни (bayn-i), миёни (miyon-i)
  • Thai: ระหว่าง (th) (rá-wàang)
  • Turkish: arasında (tr)
  • Turkmen: arasynda
  • Ukrainian: між (uk) (miž), меж (mež)
  • Urdu: بیچ (bīc)
  • Uzbek: oʻrtasida (uz)
  • Vietnamese: giữa (vi), ở giữa
  • Welsh: rhwng (cy)
  • Woiwurrung: bageroe
  • Wolaytta: gidduwan
  • Yaghnobi: бидун (bidun)
  • Yiddish: צווישן (tsvishn)
shared in confidence by
  • Armenian: միջև (hy) (miǰew)
  • Bulgarian: между́ (bg) (meždú)
  • Danish: mellem (da), imellem (da)
  • Dutch: onder ons gezegd en gezwegen
  • Esperanto: inter (eo)
  • Finnish: kesken (fi), välillä (fi)
  • French: entre (fr)
  • Italian: tra (it), fra (it)
  • Korean: -끼리 (-kkiri)
  • Kurdish:
    Central Kurdish: لە نێوان (le nêwan)
  • Latvian: starp
  • Macedonian: меѓу (meǵu), помеѓу (pomeǵu)
  • Norwegian: mellom (no)
  • Polish: między (pl)
  • Portuguese: entre (pt)
  • Romanian: între (ro)
  • Russian: среди́ (ru) (sredí), ме́жду (ru) (méždu)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic: ме̏ђу, и̏змеђу
    Latin: mȅđu, ȉzmeđu
  • Slovak: medzi
  • Spanish: entre (es)
  • Swedish: mellan (sv)
in transit from one to the other
  • Armenian: միջև (hy) (miǰew)
  • Bulgarian: помежду (bg) (pomeždu)
  • Danish: mellem (da)
  • Dutch: tussen (nl)
  • Finnish: välissä (fi), välillä (fi)
  • Frisian:
    West Frisian: tusken
  • German: zwischen (de)
  • Hebrew: בין (he) (bein)
  • Ido: inter (io)
  • Italian: tra (it), fra (it)
  • Korean: 간을 (ko) (gan-eul)
  • Latvian: starp
  • Macedonian: по́меѓу (pómeǵu)
  • Norwegian: mellom (no)
  • Persian: بین (fa) (beyn)
  • Polish: między (pl), pomiędzy (pl)
  • Portuguese: entre (pt)
  • Romanian: între (ro)
  • Russian: ме́жду (ru) (méždu) (but often a different construction is used, and между here is sometimes considered nonstandard)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic: ме̏ђу
    Latin: mȅđu
  • Slovak: medzi
  • Spanish: entre (es)
combined by effort or ownership
  • Danish: tilsammen (adverb), ved (da) fælles hjælp (da) (by combined forces), i forening
  • Dutch: onder (nl)
  • Finnish: kesken (fi), yhteensä (fi), välillä (fi)
  • Italian: tra (it)
  • Macedonian: за́едно (záedno)
  • Portuguese: entre (pt)
  • Russian: сумма́рно (ru) (summárno), всего́ (ru) (vsevó), на всех (na vsex), вме́сте (ru) (vméste)
  • Spanish: entre (es)
one of, representing a choice
  • Armenian: միջև (hy) (miǰew)
  • Bulgarian: между (bg) (meždu)
  • Czech: mezi (cs)
  • Danish: mellem (da)
  • Dutch: tussen (nl)
  • Finnish: väliltä (fi), can be expressed by the elative case (-sta/-stä)
  • French: entre (fr)
  • Frisian:
    West Frisian: tusken
  • German: zwischen (de)
  • Hebrew: בין (he) (bein)
  • Ido: inter (io)
  • Italian: tra (it), fra (it)
  • Korean: 사이 (ko) (sai), 중 (ko) (jung) 하나 (ko) (hana)
  • Latvian: starp
  • Macedonian: по́меѓу (pómeǵu)
  • Norwegian: mellom (no)
  • Persian: بین (fa) (beyn)
  • Polish: pomiędzy (pl), między (pl)
  • Portuguese: entre (pt)
  • Romanian: între (ro)
  • Russian: ме́жду (ru) (méždu)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic: и̏змеђу
    Latin: ȉzmeđu
  • Spanish: entre (es)
  • Swedish: mellan (sv)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
  • Breton: (please verify) etre (br)
  • Indonesian: (please verify) antara (id)
  • Romanian: (please verify) între (ro)

See also

  • betwixt
  • among

Noun

between (plural betweens)

  1. A kind of needle, shorter than a sharp, with a small rounded eye, used for making fine stitches on heavy fabrics.

References

  1. ^ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/between, see also https://merriam-webster.com/assets/mw/static/pdf/help/guide-to-pronunciation.pdf#page=3 for an explanation of its symbols
  2. ^
    (Can we date this quote?), “How to distinguish ‘between’ and ‘among’ ”, in Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology‎[1], University of Arizona, archived from the original on 1 November 2023:

Anagrams

  • betwene

Chinese

Etymology

Reinterpretation of English btw as an abbreviation of between.

Pronunciation

Phrase

between

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang, neologism, humorous) BTW; by the way
    • 2013, 于日辰(小姓奴), 壹獄壹世界 A World in an Iron Grille‎[4], page 206:
      Between, 唔使覺得奇怪,D字跡不是我的,我搵人代寫。 [Hong Kong Cantonese, trad.]
      Between, 唔使觉得奇怪,D字迹不是我的,我揾人代写。 [Hong Kong Cantonese, simp.]
      Between, m4 sai2 gok3 dak1 kei4 gwaai3, di1 zi6 zik1 bat1 si6 ngo5 dik1, ngo5 wan2 jan4 doi6 se2. [Jyutping]
      By the way, there's no need to be baffled, the handwriting [of this letter] isn't mine, I got someone to write it for me.
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=between&oldid=94547786"
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