Learn English – Easy is to beginner as medium is to

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I want to display three levels in my game…but I don't know what the text should say.

easy -> Beginner

medium -> ?

hard -> Expert

Basically, I want the form that describes the person playing the game, instead of the game itself. What adjective is best?

I have considered adept.

I doubt my users will know what adept means. Also, I need something in between expert and beginner. Adept falls into the expert category. Is there anything more common that I can use, that has the same impact as the other two words I mentioned?

Proficient would work, theoretically, but in day-to-day term, the levels "beginner – proficient – expert" won't sound great.

Best Answer

I think the correct word is intermediate, as @Rathony mentioned. It's also a noun, so He is an intermediate is perfectly OK:

intermediate (noun): one that is in a middle position or state.

(AHD)

intermediate noun [countable] [plural intermediates]
a student, player etc who has not yet reached an advanced level

(Macmillan Dictionary)

One classic example is Minesweeper:

enter image description here

@Rathony If you choose to post "intermediate" as an answer I will happily delete mine or edit it to suggest other alternatives.

UPDATE: Some EL&U users have challenged the use of intermediate as a noun. Some went as far as to say that "I'm an intermediate" have never (sic!) been said.

If you doubt this usage, consider this entry from the Oxford American Dictionary:

enter image description here

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