Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Most important; principal. See Synonyms at chief.
- adj. Exerted to the utmost; sheer: by main strength.
- adj. Nautical Connected to or located near the mainmast: a main skysail.
- adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being the principal clause or verb of a complex sentence.
- adj. Obsolete Of or relating to a continuous area or stretch, as of land or water.
- n. The chief or largest part: His ideas are, in the main, impractical.
- n. The principal pipe or conduit in a system for conveying water, gas, oil, or other utility.
- n. Physical strength: fought with might and main.
- n. A mainland.
- n. The open ocean.
- n. Nautical A mainsail.
- n. Nautical A mainmast.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Strength; force; violent effort: now used chiefly in the phrase with might and main.
- n. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the gross; the bulk; the greater part.
- n. The principal point; that which is of most importance; the chief or principal object, aim, or effort.
- n. A broad expanse, as of space or light; unbroken extent; full sweep or stretch.
- n. Now, specifically
- n. The expanse of ocean; the open ocean; the high sea.
- n. A continental stretch of land; a continent; the maiuland, as distinguished from islands.
- n. A principal duct, channel, pipe, or electrical conductor, as a water- or gas-pipe running along a street in a town, or the largest conductor in a system of electric lights.
- n. The thick part of meat.
- Great in size or degree; vast; hence, strong; powerful; important.
- Principal; prime; chief; leading; of chief or principal importance: as, his main effort was to please.
- Principal or chief in size or extent; largest; consisting of the largest part; most important by reason of size or strength: as, the main timbers of a building; the main branch of a river; the main body of an army.
- Full; undivided; sheer: now used chiefly in the phrases main strength, main force.
- Nautical, belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
- “Big”; angry.
- Mightily; exceedingly; extremely.
- n. A hand.
- n. . A hand at dice; a throw of the dice at hazard.
- n. A match at cock-fighting.
- n. A banker's shovel for coin.
- To furl: said of sails.
- An obsolete variant of maim.
Wiktionary
- n. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the gross; the bulk; the greater part.
- adj. obsolete Great in size or degree; vast; strong; powerful; important.
- adj. Principal or chief in size or extent; largest; consisting of the largest part; most important by reason or size or strength.
- adj. nautical Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
- adj. dialectal Big; angry.
- adv. UK, dialectal Very; very much; greatly; mightily; extremely; exceedingly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A hand or match at dice.
- n. obsolete A stake played for at dice.
- n. The largest throw in a match at dice; a throw at dice within given limits, as in the game of hazard.
- n. A match at cockfighting.
- n. obsolete A main-hamper.
- n. Obs., except in certain phrases. Strength; force; might; violent effort.
- n. Obs., except in special uses. The chief or principal part; the main or most important thing.
- n. The great sea, as distinguished from an arm, bay, etc. ; the high sea; the ocean.
- n. The continent, as distinguished from an island; the mainland.
- n. principal duct or pipe, as distinguished from lesser ones; esp. (Engin.), a principal pipe leading to or from a reservoir.
- adj. obsolete Very or extremely strong.
- adj. obsolete Vast; huge.
- adj. obsolete Unqualified; absolute; entire; sheer.
- adj. Principal; chief; first in size, rank, importance, etc..
- adj. obsolete Important; necessary.
- adv. Obs. or Low, Obs. or Low Very; extremely.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any very large body of (salt) water
- adj. (of a clause) capable of standing syntactically alone as a complete sentence
- n. a principal pipe in a system that distributes water or gas or electricity or that collects sewage
- adj. of force; of the greatest possible intensity
- adj. most important element
Etymologies
- From Middle English main, mayn, meyn, partly from Old English mægen- ("strong, principal, main"; used in combination), from Old English mæġen ("strength"), and partly from Old Norse megn, megenn ("strong, main"); both from Proto-Germanic *maginan (“strength, power, might”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *mogh-, *megh- (“power”). Cognate with Old High German megīn ("strong, mighty"), German Möge, Vermögen ("power, wealth"). Akin also to Old English magan ("to be able to"). More at may. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English mægen, strength; see magh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It may be the initial effect; very probably it is; but since the main function of the spermatozoon must be the introduction of germplasm from the male parent, it is too much for anyone to ask us to believe that its _main_ function is concerned with surface alteration.”
“The _main_ body of this barn stands on the ground, 100×50 feet, with eighteen-feet posts, and a broad, sheltering roof, of 40° pitch from a horizontal line, and truncated at the gables to the width of the main doors below.”
Rural Architecture Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings
“ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException at Sample2. setData (Native Method) at test2. main (test2. java: 7) native data = 123 Exception in thread \ "main\" java. lang.”
“NoSuchMethodError: main 运行时 Exception in thread \ "main\" java. lang.”
“The latter part in main is where the weaker work lies.”
Superhero Prose Fiction: Flashing Swords - Flashing Swords Magazine 5
“The term main enemy was dropped in 2004 under South Korea's "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with North Korea.”
“The term main enemy was dropped in 2004 under South Korea's Sunshine”
“Mr. Hollande said on Sunday that some of his first actions, were he to win the presidential election, would be to shackle the world of finance—which he described as his "main foe"—and raise taxes on the rich.”
The Wall Street Journal: Sarkozy Opponent Calls Finance Sector His 'Foe'
“However, they say such regulations don't strike at rising costs of health care, which they describe as the main reason some consumers have seen double-digit increases in health-insurance premiums in recent years.”
The Wall Street Journal: Health Premium Increases to Face New Scrutiny
“Despite what I think was pretty widespread dissatisfaction with the show, many in the audience played the role of fawning fan particularly when Ms. Merchant left the stage after concluding what she described as the main part of the show.”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Jim Taylor: Natalie Merchant a Disappointment in Concert
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘main’.
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TECH - metals and alloys
toughness, furnace, vibration, bronze, modulus, tubing, flow, zinc, melting, porta, embrittle, wetting and 262 more...
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Written on Water
An eclectic list of words pertaining to and describing water.
"...I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the...water, rain, cistern, thirst, dead-water, eddy-water, surge, flood, ebb, fluid, flow, liquor amnii and 202 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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Emerson
sacerdotal, stoic, lineament, accost, allude, laudatory, discourse, commendation, befall, oracle, main, Gibeon and 2 more...
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Words I like
A list contrived for the sole purpose of storing words I like to include in my writing; words that inspire or carry power for me.
contrite, meadow, sward, ossary, calumny, moribund, necropolis, chthonic, murmur, erstwhile, chime, beryl and 63 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Obsolete Words
Words that are either classical or are no longer in common use.
fog eater, hepcat, lacunae, gamine, fain, abaid, abaie, cockatrice, main
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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faux amis
Words which mean something different in another language.
gift, rat, handy, puff, mist, bald, bad, tripper, qualm, slip, fast, art and 57 more...
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TT3 Lesson 36
achievement, chaos, design, detail, frustrating, grateful, honest, inventor, lazy, main, mistake, native speaker and 7 more...
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important
imperative, crux, crucial, main, key, chief, major, vital, prime, core, pivotal, central and 3 more...
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free's Words
freedom, balance, top, pop, music, sci, art, biz, psy, key, link, way and 82 more...
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Week1Tm4words
Vocabulary needed for Term 4's Writing and Topic work.
story, fairy, plot, setting, character, problem, solution, solve, main, favourite
Tweets
Looking for tweets for main.

grandpa27 This comment placed in "billowy main"
I found "billowy main" in On seeing the Elgin Marbles - Keats.
"That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude
Wasting of old Time -- with a billowy main --
A sun -- a shadow of a magnitude." Mar 31, 2011
ericsommer WorldStewards refers to a political party and social movement in which people take on formal obligations to work together to care for one another and the world; those who work for a world based on sharing and cooperation. Jul 20, 2009
Mary2 Not left out, because the dictionary you cite addresses this meaning (no. 9, a mainland). But couldn't help thinking that the famous John Donne passage would fit well in this mix.
http://www.bartleby.com/73/134.html
Like so many of my generation, I first encountered his words when I read Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Jun 27, 2009
sionnach The hand of a French person. Jan 9, 2008