main

1. 1.

   any very large body of (salt) water

   Synonymsbriny

   Broaderbody of water

   Part ofhydrosphere

   Partshigh seaoffingterritorial waters
2. 2.

   a principal pipe in a system that distributes water or gas or electricity or that collects sewage

   Broaderpipe

   Narrowerelectric maingas mainsewer mainwater main

   Part ofinfrastructure

Other forms of main

plural

mains·

comparative

mainer·

superlative

mainest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about main

What does main mean?

main means "most important element". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in main?

main has 1 syllable: main. In IPA it is /ˈmeɪn/.

What is another word for main?

Close synonyms include chief, primary, principal, master, independent. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is main a common word?

main is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with main?

11 words rhyme with main. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.