Word.ws English Dictionary

mainmast

/ˈmeɪn.mɑːst/US/ˈmeɪn.mæst/

mainmast noun: the tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship.

mainmast: the tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship
Image: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mainmast (plural mainmasts)

  1. The tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship.
    • O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em; now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you’ld thrust a cork into a hogshead.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • Then turning to his first Minister, who waited behind him with a white Staff near as tall as the Main-mast of the Royal Soveraign, he observed how contemptible a thing was human Grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive Insects as I […]1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the...
  2. The second-foremost mast of a non-sailing ship with more than one mast.

Forms of mainmast

pluralmainmasts
alternative formmain-mast

Origin of mainmast

From main + mast.

Words formed from mainmast

Phrases with mainmast

Questions about mainmast

What does mainmast mean?
Mainmast means the tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship.
What part of speech is mainmast?
Mainmast is a noun.
How do you pronounce mainmast?
Mainmast is pronounced /ˈmeɪn.mɑːst/ (UK).
What is the plural of mainmast?
The plural of mainmast is mainmasts.

Words near mainmast in the dictionary

  1. mainliners
  2. mainlines
  3. Mainling
  4. mainlining
  5. mainly
  6. mainmast
  7. mainmast head
  8. mainmast heads
  9. mainmastman
  10. mainmastmen
  11. mainmasts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mainmast (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mainmast.wav.

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