between
pronunciation
How to pronounce between in British English:
UK [bɪˈtwiːn]
How to pronounce between in American English:
US [bɪˈtwiːn]
-
- Adverb:
- in the interval
- in between
Word Origin
- between
- between: [OE] The second syllable of between is related to two and twin; the word as a whole seems to represent an original phrase meaning something like ‘by two each’. Old English betwēonum reflects a Germanic *twēon, reduced from an earlier *twikhnai; this represents the base *twīkh- (from which we get two) plus an -n suffix with apparently some sort of distributive function. The related betwixt comes ultimately from Germanic *twa ‘two’ and the element *-isk- ‘-ish’.=> twin, two
- between (prep.)
- Old English betweonum "between, among, by turns," Mercian betwinum, from bi- "by" (see be-) + tweonum dative plural of *tweon "two each" (compare Gothic tweih-nai "two each"). Between a rock and a hard place is from 1940s, originally cowboy slang. Between-whiles is from 1670s.
Example
- 1. The truth lies somewhere in between .
- 2. The truth is that he 's somewhere in between .
- 3. They do not need fiscal transfers between states .
- 4. The dispute is another indication of the rising trade tensions between the parties as the economic crisis grinds on .
- 5. The rest were somewhere in between .