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Definition of middle term in US English:

middle term

noun

Logic

  • The term common to both premises of a syllogism.

    • ‘In the latter, the syllogisms involved must have middle terms that are causes of the state of affairs which is to be demonstrated.’
    • ‘One could expect that her method would not enter into the chain of causalities, a chain that skips over or often forgets about the intermediary as a generative middle term.’
    • ‘The missing middle term in the Shakespearian proposition is our response.’
    • ‘Thomas Aquinas argued that the highest sort of demonstration had as its middle term the real definition of the subject term.’
    • ‘The reduction of propositions to principles leads to the middle term.’