Dictionaries › English

main

Pronunciation: /meɪn/

The English word “main” has 20 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Of chief or leading importance; prime, principal.
  2. Chief, most important, or principal in extent, size, or strength; consisting of the largest part.
  3. Full, sheer, undivided.
  4. Big; angry.
  5. Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
  6. Great in size or degree; important, powerful, strong, vast.

adverb

  1. Exceedingly, extremely, greatly, mightily, very, very much.

verb

  1. To mainly play a specific character or side, or with specific equipment, during a game.
  2. To convert (a road) into a main or primary road.

noun

  1. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the bulk, the greater part, gross.
  2. The primary character that one plays in a video game in which one can play more than one character.
  3. A main account.
  4. A large cable or pipe providing utility service to an area or a building, such as a water main or electric main.
  5. The high seas.
  6. The mainland.
  7. Force, power, strength, violent effort.
  8. A hand or match in a game of dice.
  9. The largest throw in a match at dice; in the game of hazard, a number from one to nine called out by a person before the dice are thrown.
  10. A stake played for at dice.
  11. A sporting contest or match, especially a cockfighting match.

Etymology

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæin, meyn, from main (noun) (see further at etymology 2); compare Old English mæġen (“strong, main, principal”) (used in combination) and Old Norse megn, megenn (“strong, main”). The word is cognate with Old High German megīn (“strong, mighty”) (modern German Möge, Vermögen (“power, wealth”)), and also akin to Old English magan (“to be able to”). See also…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “main” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.