| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| between |
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| SYLLABICATION: | be·tween |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b -tw n |
| PREPOSITION: | 1a. In or through the position or interval separating: between the trees; between 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock. b. Intermediate to, as in quantity, amount, or degree: It costs between 15 and 20 dollars. 2. Usage Problem Connecting spatially: a railroad between the two cities. 3. Usage Problem Associating or uniting in a reciprocal action or relationship: an agreement between workers and management; a certain resemblance between the two stories. 4. In confidence restricted to: Between you and me, he is not qualified. 5a. By the combined effort or effect of: Between them they succeeded. b. In the combined ownership of: They had only a few dollars between them. 6. As measured against. Often used to express a reciprocal relationship: choose between riding and walking. | | ADVERB: | In an intermediate space, position, or time; in the interim. | | IDIOMS: | in between In an intermediate situation: My roommates disagreed and I was caught in between. in between times During an intervening period; in the meantime: has written several books and teaches in between times. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bitwene, from Old English betwonum. See dwo- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | betweenness —NOUN
| | USAGE NOTE: | According to a widely repeated but unjustified tradition, “between is used for two, and among for more than two.” It is true that between is the only choice when exactly two entities are specified: the choice between (not among) good and evil, the rivalry between (not among) Great Britain and France. When more than two entities are involved, however, or when the number of entities is unspecified, the choice of one or the other word depends on the intended sense. Between is used when the entities are considered as distinct individuals; among, when they are considered as a mass or collectivity. Thus in the sentence The bomb landed between the houses, the houses are seen as points that define the boundaries of the area of impact (so that we presume that none of the individual houses was hit). In The bomb landed among the houses, the area of impact is considered to be the general location of the houses, taken together (in which case it is left open whether any houses were hit). By the same token, we may speak of a series of wars between the Greek cities, which suggests that each city was an independent participant in the hostilities, or of a series of wars among the Greek cities, which allows for the possibility that the participants were shifting alliances of cities. For this reason, among is used to indicate inclusion in a group: She is among the best of our young sculptors. There is a spy among you. Use between when the entities are seen as determining the limits or endpoints of a range: They searched the area between the river, the farmhouse, and the woods. The truck driver had obviously been drinking between stops.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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