Should you use ‘among’ or ‘amongst’? And What’s the difference between the two words? We’ll answer that in this article, plus teach you how to use both in a sentence correctly.
The quick answer is that ‘among’ and ‘amongst’ are both prepositions, and they both mean ‘in the company of’ or ‘surrounded by.’ These words can be used interchangeably. ‘Among’ is most commonly accepted and preferred.
As you just learned, these words both mean the same thing. They’re both prepositions, and they both mean ‘in the company of’ or ‘surrounded by.’ They can be used interchangeably. However, the most commonly accepted version of the word is spelled without the ‘st’ at the end.
You can use ‘among’ and ‘amongst’ at your discretion. Although, you might come across the latter a lot more in your everyday life.
The Merriam-Webster definition of both words is: “in or through the midst of: surrounded by,” “in company or association with,” “by or through the aggregate of,” “in the number or class of,” “in shares to each of,” “through the reciprocal acts of,” and “through the joint action of.”
A few synonyms of the words include:
Now that you know what they mean let’s look at how to use these words in a sentence correctly.
Remember, these words can be used interchangeably, so you can swap out one for the other in any of these sentences (or any you create on your own).
Now that you know that these words can be used interchangeably in your writing and that they mean the exact same thing, you can start using both words in your writing effortlessly. Use the above examples as a guide.
If you ever get stuck, you can always pop back over for a quick refresher. We don’t bite.
We’ve got a whole library of content dedicated to explaining confusing words in the English language. Go check it out.
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