middle of nowhere
91
4.6
- noun
- Informal
:
en medio de la nada
- He grew up in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere, far from any city.
This empty hotel in the middle of nowhere is starting to fill up.
- This empty hotel in the middle of nowhere is starting to fill up.
- They live in a town that is in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.
- Why put a camp out in the middle of nowhere like that?
- I mean, it's crazy to think that we are this speck in the middle of nowhere and we're fighting.
- And it was up in Washington state, just in the middle of nowhere in the mountains.
- And you are literally in the middle of nowhere.
- But prisons are, as we know, often in the middle of nowhere.
- So they're landing, like I said, in the middle of nowhere.
- It is these rocks in the middle of nowhere.
Examples
-
The Town Car is parked behind an old warehouse in the middle of nowhere.
Fiction book (2002) -
Of course, on the way back, in the middle of nowhere, the car broke down.
Fiction book (1994) -
Why put a camp out in the middle of nowhere like that?
-
Why do you think I moved to the middle of nowhere?
-
We're actually just in the middle of nowhere.
-
We're out in the middle of nowhere.
-
We're just this little island in the middle of nowhere, and it's so incredible.
Fiction book (1999) -
A generic ranch home standing all alone in the middle of nowhere.
Fiction book (2000) -
They live in a town that is in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.
-
So, you know, a friend of mine had a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere that he grew up in that was haunted.
Synonyms
9
4.0
In a place far from towns and not often visited
8
8.8
An area far from cities or the coast, often remote and less developed
7
9.1
A place far from towns where few people live
7
8.4
A remote forest area far from towns and roads
2
9.4
A distant land far beyond the sea
2
9.9
A very remote part of the Australian outback that is wild and harsh
1
5.7
A remote wild area far from towns and roads
1
9.3
A very remote area far from towns and cities
1
7.0
A remote place with few people and many trees
1
9.9
A very remote place far from towns or cities
1
9.9
A very far away empty place with nothing there
A rural area far from towns and cities with few people
Areas far from towns or cities where few people live and life is often hard
Antonyms
How Remote
- UK
1
9.8
- Informal
91
4.6
- Informal
1
9.1
- UK
7
9.1
26
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a very remote place' is directly derivable from combining 'middle' (central part) with 'nowhere' (no place/remote), with 'of' marking the relationship; a learner who knows the constituent words can infer that something is in the central part of 'nowhere' and thus very isolated. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'en medio de la nada'), so it is immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Middle of nowhere comes from a simple image: imagine standing in the middle of a place called nowhere, the exact centre of no place at all. That's why it means 'very far from towns and cities' or 'isolated'.