Amid means in the middle of a group of things. Amid the crowd, amid growing concern, amid the ruins.
It is formal and belongs to writing rather than speech, and journalism uses it constantly for setting a scene: amid growing pressure, amid reports that. Amidst is the same word with an added -t and is slightly more literary. Note that amid takes a mass or a group, where among takes countable things — amid the confusion, among the trees — though the distinction is loosely kept.
1prepositionamidIn the middle of a group of things.
“The small house stood amid tall pine trees.”
amid is a preposition of position.
Old English on middan is on plus middle. Amidst added an excrescent -t later, exactly as amongst and whilst did.
Old English
on middan
Middle English
amidde
English, today
amid
From Middle English amidde, Old English on middan, a + mid.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA