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Glite Dictionary
mid-sentence

mid-sentence

5.1
Happening in the middle of a sentence while speaking or writing
  • adjective
  • /mɪd ˈsɛntəns/
translation icon : en medio de la frase
  • The speaker was interrupted in mid-sentence, which left the audience confused.

But he is caught off in mid sentence and never finishes it.

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Examples

  • She paused unexpectedly in mid-sentence during her explanation.

  • He often gets distracted and trails off in mid-sentence.

  • But he is caught off in mid sentence and never finishes it.

    Stanford

  • We were discussing the case and we both fell asleep in mid sentence and woke up three hours later.

  • We interviewed a number of pilots who were there that day and several of them stopped in mid sentence, unable to unable to finish.

Surface Forms

mid-sentence positive

Morphology

mid-sentence = sentence (transparent) = mid + sentence

Formed by the productive combining prefix 'mid-' (meaning 'middle') plus 'sentence'; the meaning 'in the middle of a sentence' is directly compositional.

Etymology

Mid-sentence is a simple compound: mid- means 'middle', as in midnight or midday, and sentence means a group of words. So mid-sentence means 'in the middle of a sentence' or while you are still speaking.