"middle ground" meaning in English

See middle ground in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-middle ground.ogg [Australia] Forms: middle grounds [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} middle ground (countable and uncountable, plural middle grounds)
  1. (idiomatic) A compromise position between extremes. Tags: countable, idiomatic, uncountable Translations (compromise position between extremes): compromis [neuter] (Dutch), middenweg [masculine] (Dutch), keskitie (Finnish), välimaasto (Finnish), compromis [masculine] (French), juste milieu (French), milieu [masculine] (French), موضع میانه (moze'-e miyâne) (Persian), kompromis (Polish), rozwiązanie kompromisowe (Polish), płaszczyzna porozumienia (Polish), meio-termo [masculine] (Portuguese), medelväg [common-gender] (Swedish), orta yol (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-middle_ground-en-noun-nla1~8VH Disambiguation of 'compromise position between extremes': 98 2
  2. (art, photography) The middle distance. Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Art, Photography Synonyms: middle-ground Related terms: golden mean, compromise Translations (middle distance): keskiala (Finnish), meánionad [masculine] (Irish), meánraon [masculine] (Irish), حد وسط (hadd-e vasat) (Persian)
    Sense id: en-middle_ground-en-noun-wBs4UOoF Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 2 98 Topics: art, arts, hobbies, lifestyle, photography Disambiguation of 'middle distance': 1 99

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for middle ground meaning in English (6.0kB)

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          "text": "You need to find the middle ground between the two extremes.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-08-06",
          "text": "But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which [Justin] Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM accouterments, seeking a comfortable middle ground where Bieber’s impressively refined pop-R&B croon can rub up on techno blasts and garish dubstep drops (and occasionally grind on some AutoTune, not necessarily because it needs it, but because a certain amount of robo-voice is expected these days).",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "2022 April 6, Conrad Landin, “ScotRail in the public eye...”, in RAIL, number 954, page 40",
          "text": "\" [...] I want to work with the unions, I want to listen to their demands. We're not always going to agree, of course, but they want public ownership of the railways to work, and we want public ownership of the railways to work, so actually there's a middle ground here.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "This is not a land of blowouts. It’s a middle ground, and that’s reflected in voter registration rolls. Nearly 2.6 million North Carolinians declare themselves unaffiliated, while just over 2.4 million identify as Democrats and just under 2.2 million as Republicans. We don’t tilt. We teeter.",
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        "(idiomatic) A compromise position between extremes."
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
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          "word": "compromis"
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        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "nl",
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          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
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          "word": "middenweg"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "keskitie"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "välimaasto"
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          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fr",
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          "word": "juste milieu"
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "roman": "moze'-e miyâne",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "موضع میانه"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "kompromis"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "rozwiązanie kompromisowe"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "płaszczyzna porozumienia"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "meio-termo"
        },
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "medelväg"
        },
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
          "word": "orta yol"
        }
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        "The middle distance."
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        "(art, photography) The middle distance."
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          "word": "keskiala"
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          "sense": "middle distance",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "1 99",
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          "sense": "middle distance",
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
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          "roman": "hadd-e vasat",
          "sense": "middle distance",
          "word": "حد وسط"
        }
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          "text": "But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which [Justin] Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM accouterments, seeking a comfortable middle ground where Bieber’s impressively refined pop-R&B croon can rub up on techno blasts and garish dubstep drops (and occasionally grind on some AutoTune, not necessarily because it needs it, but because a certain amount of robo-voice is expected these days).",
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      "word": "compromis"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "word": "middenweg"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "keskitie"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "välimaasto"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "compromis"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "juste milieu"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "milieu"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "roman": "moze'-e miyâne",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "موضع میانه"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "kompromis"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "rozwiązanie kompromisowe"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "płaszczyzna porozumienia"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
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      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "medelväg"
    },
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      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "compromise position between extremes",
      "word": "orta yol"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "middle distance",
      "word": "keskiala"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "middle distance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "meánionad"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "middle distance",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "meánraon"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "roman": "hadd-e vasat",
      "sense": "middle distance",
      "word": "حد وسط"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
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  ],
  "word": "middle ground"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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