Word.ws English Dictionary

maine

/mɛn/UK/meɪn/

maine is the obsolete form of main.

Meaning of main

Noun

main (plural mains)

  1. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the bulk, the greater part, gross.
    • Antiochus […] thought it a proper time for him to attempt the recovery of Syria; and Hermias his prime Miniſter preſſed hard for his going in perſon to this war, contrary to the Opinion of Epigenes his General; who thought it chiefly concerned him to ſuppreſs the Rebellion of Alexander and Molon in...1718, Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testaments Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, from the Declension of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the Time of Christ, 3rd...
    1. The primary character that one plays in a video game in which one can play more than one character.
      • My WoW main has reached level cap and I’m on my way getting my first alt there as well.
    2. (Internet) A main account.
      • His main got banned after his last post.
  2. A large cable or pipe providing utility service to an area or a building, such as a water main or electric main.
    • There's a gas leak in the main outside the building.
  3. (poetic) The high seas.
    • Who ſhall him rew, that ſwimming in the maine, / Will die for thriſt, and water doth refuſe? / Refuſe ſuch fruitleſſe toile, and preſent pleaſures chuſe.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17, page 261
  4. (US, archaic, dialectal) The mainland.
    • In the year that followed of 1589, we gave the Spaniards no breath, but turned challengers, invaded the main of Spain. In which enterprize, although we failed of our end, which was to ſettle Don Antonio in the kingdom of Portugal, yet a man ſhall hardly meet with an action that doth better reveal...1624, Francis Bacon, “Considerations Touching a War with Spain. Inscribed to Prince Charles, An. 1624.”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor...

See all 25 meanings of main

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Maine

Maine

  1. (error-lua-exec) A former province of Pays de la Loire, France. Capital: Le Mans.
  2. (error-lua-exec) A state of the United States; probably named for the province in France. Capital: Augusta. Largest city: Portland.
    • These first English migrants to Jamestown endured terrible disease and arrived during a period of drought and colder-than-normal winters. The migrants to Roanoke on the outer banks of Carolina, where the English had gone in the 1580s, disappeared. And a brief effort to settle the coast of Maine in...2019 November 25, Peter C. Mancall, “Pilgrims survived until the first Thanksgiving thanks to an epidemic that devastated Native Americans”, in CNN
  3. (error-lua-exec) A town in New York.
  4. (error-lua-exec) A town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin; named for the state.
  5. (error-lua-exec) A river in Maine, United States, flowing 5.5 miles from Pocomoonshine Lake in Princeton into Crawford Lake in Crawford.
  6. (error-lua-exec) University of Maine.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Maine

IPA/mɛːn/

Maine

  1. A river in Maine-et-Loire department, Pays de la Loire, France, a tributary of the Loire, flowing 12 km through the city of Angers from the confluence of the Mayenne and Sarthe into the Loire.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Maine

Maine

  1. A Scottish and English surname from Old French, a variant of Main.
  2. A village in Marathon County, Wisconsin; named for county sheriff Uriah E. Maine.

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Maine

Maine

  1. A river in County Kerry, Ireland, flowing 43 km from Tobermaing into the Atlantic at Castlemaine.

Proper noun (5) capitalized: Maine

Maine

  1. A male given name from Old Irish, of historical usage, notably borne by Irish kings Maine mac Cerbaill and Maine mac Néill.

Proper noun (6) capitalized: Maine

Maine

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Main: A river in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Forms of maine

pluralmaines

Origin of maine

The US state is from French Maine, named by its French explorers after the province in France with the same name. From Old French Cemaine, from Latin *Cenomania, from the name of the Gaulish Cenomani tribe of Gallia Celtica. The word was rebracketed as ce (“this”) + Maine, and the ce- was lost by the 12th century.

From French Maine, from earlier Maienne, from Latin Meduāna, of uncertain origin. Doublet of Mayenne. Unrelated to the French province of the same name.

From Irish An Mhaing

Words formed from maine

Phrases with maine

Words that rhyme with maine

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about maine

What does maine mean?
Maine means a former province of Pays de la Loire, France. Capital: Le Mans.
What is maine the obsolete form of?
Maine is the obsolete form of main.
What part of speech is maine?
Maine is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce maine?
Maine is pronounced /mɛn/.

Words near maine in the dictionary

  1. Maindee
  2. maindoor
  3. maindrag
  4. maindrags
  5. Maindy
  6. maine
  7. Maine Coon
  8. Maine Coon cat
  9. Maine Coon cats
  10. Maine Coons
  11. Maine law

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maine (page history and authors); Maine (page history and authors); main (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Maine.ogg.

Cite this entry: “maine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.