Difference Between Among and Amongst

November 2022 · 3 minute read

When two similar words are used in a sentence, it’s all about who you prefer to use. This case of comparing the words among and amongst.

There are two different meanings for the word “. Among and amongst means surrounded by, near or in the company of something; they mean to be surrounded by, around or near something.

AmongAmongst
Less formalMore formal
Grammatically correctGrammatically correct
Commonly used in American EnglishCommonly used in British English

What Is Among?

Among seem like the more formal versions of the same word, but in fact, among is the more formal version of the two words. The word among dates back to the old english version, but among was only used in Middle English. But the use of among in Middle English is more archaic.

Both American and British English still prefer to use among instead of amongst. They use it because among is simpler to use in almost every occasion.

What Is Amongst?

Basically amongst has the same meaning as among. But amongst them is more polite and formal. For example when you are talking about queens or kings. Amongst could be a perfect word to mention.

You know that amongst and among are the same thing, because there are many words that we use everyday that mean the same thing. There is no difference between using among and using among, except that using among and using among adds a certain amount of formality to your writing.

But what about using between? Between is often confused with among, but when you talk about something that occurs between those two words, you are talking about two or more separate things.

How Are They Related?

Sentences Using Among and Amongst are similar, but if you change the words from between and among, it looks very formal. Amongst

Because of the fact that both words mean the same, they can be interchanged. If you change the word from among to amongst, it creates more formality in your sentence. It makes the sentence sound “older”.

Both are prepositions, which means that they act as an interrogative for another word or clause. There are many reasons why using amongst instead of among is grammatically accepted.

Although the two words are very similar, you should know that among is more common than between and that among is more appropriate for formal or poetic purposes.

You can remind yourself of this by thinking of similar words as between and between. Some people mistakenly think that between and between are similar to one another.

In modern society, between is much more common for most situations. The format is used mostly in very formal settings or when people are trying to do something poetic or literary.

Among vs Amongst

Is the Preferred Choice? I’m not going to explain which word is correct, but here are a few examples of what’s wrong with using both of these words.

Because of the fact that many people no longer use the word, “among” is more commonly used in English. If you use among, you are correct, but people think that is more formal and pretentious.

There are two things that you might want to know about the meaning of the words among and amongst.

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