middle distance

noun

1

: a part of a pictorial representation or scene between the foreground and the background

2

: any footrace distance usually from 800 to 1500 meters or from 880 yards to one mile

Examples of middle distance in a Sentence

As I looked out over the water, a small boat appeared in the middle distance.

Recent Examples on the Web

What Jaafar does amounts to an elaborate impression instead of an interpretation, re-creating the voice and the famous choreography and otherwise staring blankly into the middle distance when called upon to transmit emotions. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 23 Apr. 2026

Rendered with a deep blue backdrop and whorls of soft spring colors, La femme finds Lopez staring peaceably into the middle distance, holding a bouquet of flowers. —News Desk, Artforum, 21 Apr. 2026

Duka was a middle distance runner then. —Lori Riley, Hartford Courant, 20 Apr. 2026

For Ben Lerner’s introduction to a new edition of John Berger’s novel G., Adrian Tomine drew a handsome, cigarette-puffing Berger, staring into the middle distance. —Leanne Shapton, The New York Review of Books, 15 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1803, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for middle distance

• coexistence
• nonexistence
• assistance
• consistence
• desistance
• existence
• insistence
• persistence
• resistance
• subsistence
• magnetoresistance