Amid or amidst?
amid is a preposition meaning “In the middle of; in the center of; surrounded by”; amidst is a preposition meaning “In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) amid is about 2.5 times as common as amidst.
What is the difference between amid and amidst?
| amid | amidst | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | preposition | preposition |
| Meaning | In the middle of; in the center of; surrounded by | In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among |
| Example | a small lake amid the hills | none recorded |
| Forms | 'mid, mid | amidest, amiddst, amiddest, amydst, amyddst, amyddest |
| Pronunciation | /əˈmɪd/ | /aˈmɪdst/ /əˈmɪtst/ |
| In writing | 8.9 times per million words | 3.6 times per million words |
Sources: amid and amidst in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of amid and amidst
amid
- 1
In the middle of; in the center of; surrounded by
a small lake amid the hills
amidst
- 1
In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, amid or amidst?
amid appears 8.9 times per million words; amidst 3.6 times per million words.
amid 8.9 times per million wordsamidst 3.6 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search amid vs amidst?
“amid vs amidst” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 120 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“amidst vs amid”, “amid or amidst”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.