Word.ws English Dictionary

between

Syllables: be·tweenUK/bɪˈtwiːn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/bɪˈtwɪjn/

between preposition: in the position or interval that separates (two things), or intermediate in quantity or degree. (See Usage notes below.).

between: in the position or interval that separates (two things), or intermediate in quantity or degree....
Image: Javier Carro, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Preposition

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.
  2. Done together or reciprocally.
    • conversation between friends
    • 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.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court
  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.
    • [If] you don’t want to flip the channels between Biden and Trump, join [the] live chat, [which is covering] both town halls.2020, Lisa Lerer, “This Is Not the Debate We Wanted”, in The New York Times
  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.

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.

between meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati

between in Hindi

in the position or interval that separates two things
... के बीच ... ke bīc

between in Urdu

in the position or interval that separates two things
بیچ bīc

between in Bengali

in the position or interval that separates two things
মধ্যে moddhe, মাঝে majhe

between in Gujarati

in the position or interval that separates two things
વચ્ચે vacce
More languagesFewer languages
between in Pashto
تر منځ ter mentz
between in Tagalog
gitna
between in Arabic
بَيْنَ bayna
between in Malay
di antara, antara
between in Indonesian
di antara, antara
between in Persian
بین beyn, میان miyân
between in Thai
ระหว่าง rá-wàang
between in Vietnamese
giữa, ở giữa
between in Myanmar
ကြား kra:

Examples of between in a sentence

  • There had been words between him and the secretary about the outcome of the meeting.
  • Unfair discrimination between the able-bodied and the disabled is illegal in many places.
  • The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.

All 40 example sentences with between

Synonyms of between

All synonyms of between

Forms of between

Preposition
alternative formbetweene
alternative formbetwene
alternative formb/w
alternative formbtwn
alternative formbtw
Noun
pluralbetweens

Origin of between

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”).

Words formed from between

Phrases with between

45 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with between

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about between

What does between mean?
Between means in the position or interval that separates (two things), or intermediate in quantity or degree. (See Usage notes below.).
What is between in Hindi?
Between in Hindi is ... के बीच (... ke bīc). See Between meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is between?
Between can be a preposition or a noun.
How do you pronounce between?
Between is pronounced /bɪˈtwiːn/ (UK).

Words near between in the dictionary

  1. betwaddling
  2. betwattle
  3. betwattled
  4. betwattles
  5. betwattling
  6. between
  7. between a rock and a hard place
  8. between decks
  9. between jobs
  10. between ourselves
  11. between Scylla and Charybdis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: between (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-between.ogg.

Cite this entry: “between.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/between. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.