Word.ws English Dictionary

Middlesex

/ˈmɪdl̩.sɛks/

Middlesex proper noun: a former inland county of England, partly absorbed into the erstwhile County of London in 1889; finally abolished in 1965 and absorbed mainly into Greater London, the south-west corner of the county becoming Spelthorne Borough and included in Surrey. The whole county, in whatever form, had the Thames as its southern boundary. Also the ellipsis of Middlesex County.

Proper noun

Middlesex

  1. A former inland county of England, partly absorbed into the erstwhile County of London in 1889; finally abolished in 1965 and absorbed mainly into Greater London, the south-west corner of the county becoming Spelthorne Borough and included in Surrey. The whole county, in whatever form, had the Thames as its southern boundary.
    • A station on the Middlesex bank [of the Thames] was provided to serve Hampton Wick.1958 June, J. Spencer Gilks, “Railway Development at Kingston-upon-Thames—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 450
  2. A borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey.
  3. A town in Yates County, New York.
  4. A town in Nash County, North Carolina.
  5. A township in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
  6. A township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
  7. A town in Washington County, Vermont.
  8. An unincorporated community in Accomack County, Virginia.
  9. The central of the three historical counties of Jamaica, bordered by the counties of Cornwall in the west and Surrey in the east; named for the English county.
  10. A locality in Central Coast council area, Kentish council area and the Meander Valley council area, northern Tasmania, Australia.
  11. A rural locality in the Shire of Manjimup, South West region, Western Australia.

Also used as

Middlesex is also the ellipsis of Middlesex County.

Origin of Middlesex

From Old English Middelseaxan (literally “Middle Saxons”), which stood for both Middlesex and its people.

Words formed from Middlesex

Questions about Middlesex

What does Middlesex mean?
Middlesex means a former inland county of England, partly absorbed into the erstwhile County of London in 1889; finally abolished in 1965 and absorbed mainly into Greater London, the south-west corner of the county becoming Spelthorne Borough and included in Surrey. The whole county, in whatever form, had the Thames as its southern boundary.
What part of speech is Middlesex?
Middlesex is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Middlesex?
Middlesex is pronounced /ˈmɪdl̩.sɛks/ (UK).

Words near Middlesex in the dictionary

  1. middlescence
  2. middlescent
  3. middlescents
  4. middleschool
  5. middleschooler
  6. Middlesex
  7. Middlesex Centre
  8. Middlesex County
  9. Middlesex gallows
  10. middlesole
  11. middlesoles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Middlesex (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Middlesex.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Middlesex.wav.

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