Among/Amongst: Is there a Difference?

I first heard amongst used when I went to live in England. To my ear it sounds quaint and very “British.” I especially like it in the expression “to put the cat amongst the pigeons.”

If there ever was a difference between the two words, it is lost now.

According to the OED, amongst is

[l]ess usual in the primary local sense than among, and, when so used, generally implying dispersion, intermixture, or shifting position.

But as Fowler said many years ago,

Such a distinction may be accepted on authority, but can hardly be made convincing by quotations even on the liberal scale of the OED.

He goes on to speculate that the reason that one or the other form hasn’t fallen out of use may be owing to “the unconscious desire for euphony or ease,” and illustrates his opinion this way:

few perhaps would say amongst strangers with among to hand, amongst us is easier to say than among us.

For American speakers of English, the question is irrelevant. Americans say among.

I hope that British speakers will continue to use amongst whenever they feel like it.

Maeve on November 5, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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13 Responses to “Among/Amongst: Is there a Difference?”

Thomas on November 5th, 2007 5:17 pm

Funny you should post this now; only yesterday I looked up the difference between “while” and “whilst”. The difference is exactly the same: none, but British occasionally use “whilst” whilst Americans use “while” exclusively.
Maeve on November 5th, 2007 5:51 pm

Thomas,
I almost included whilst and while in this post, but thought I might use them in a separate post. You’ve saved me the effort.

Thanks.
Jeremy Dalton on November 5th, 2007 8:21 pm

As with most mainly British words, ‘amongst’ suits situations that require finesse.
azadeh on November 6th, 2007 1:51 am

hi what is the difference between climate and wheather
Simon Townley on November 6th, 2007 8:24 am

As a British journo and copywriter, I’d consider both ‘amongst’ and whilst’ to be archaic and now generally out of use. I’ve spent years editing them out of articles and copy written by others.
For my sins, I used to edit a business magazine written mainly by lawyers, and they loved using ‘amongst’ and ‘whilst’, mainly, I think, because they thought it made them sound more important. I think they make the writer sound a bit pompous and old fashioned now. I can understand that some may find them elegant or euphonic. I just find them a bit fuddy-duddy.
Dawn on November 8th, 2007 12:52 am

“I hope that British speakers will continue to use amongst whenever they feel like it.”
Maeve, I adore this! Thank you!

As an English translator working abroad, these kinds of American vs. British/Aussie/NZ English questions come up all the time. I hope you continue the series!

First/firstly, different from/different to, while/whilst, commas before “and” in a series…
Limnerl on November 13th, 2007 1:36 am

I have trouble understanding why some people use the word “as” in sentences like this:

I am going to call Margaret tomorrow, as I am too busy tonight.

It is annoying.
Diddums on November 14th, 2007 8:54 pm

Hmm - if someone edited out my ‘amongst’, I would edit it straight back in. The word is only dead when it’s out of use, and I’m still using it.

I liked the article. :-).
Andy on November 29th, 2007 2:27 am

Amongst is archaic for among and has no use in current English writing. There is no bell or whistle that makes the former’s use any better than the latter’s.
Gary G on December 5th, 2007 5:21 pm

…or any worse.
Mark Stewart on April 12th, 2008 6:35 pm

I can’t comment on the use of these words in British English, since I don’t regularly communicate with others in that dialect.

However, the use of “amongst” and “whilst” in American English is typical of a writer reaching for an appearance of sophistication by the use of pompous styling rather than effective or substantive content.

Other idiotic words used to make stuff sound fancy include “methodology” and “functionality”, which serve only to add unnecessary syllables to the words “method” and “function”.

For a professional field absolutely overflowing with pseudo-intellectual twits and unnecessarily complicated terminology, see Instructional Design.
Daniel Mikhailov on April 20th, 2008 9:44 pm

Firstly, While v. Whilst. “While” is used for regular constructions of sentences, while, “whilst” for conditional sentence or that subjunctive, pluperfect junk. For example, using the movie Snatch as a good example, “[If] You stop me again whilst I’m walking, and I’ll cut your bleeping jacobs off.” (Bricktop)

Amongst, I figure might have the same idea behind it, but it doesn’t seem to have as much conditionality as a word like Whilst.

I actually like the explanation that it just sounds better “amongst us” “amongst celebrities”