"mainstream" meaning in English

See mainstream in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈmeɪnstriːm/ Audio: en-us-mainstream.ogg [US] Forms: mainstream [positive], more mainstream [comparative], most mainstream [superlative]
Etymology: main + stream Etymology templates: {{compound|main|stream}} main + stream Head templates: {{adj|more=true}} [POS TABLE]
  1. Something that is mainstream is used or accepted by a lot of people.
    Sense id: simple-mainstream-en-adj-vS6vSYyo

Noun

IPA: /ˈmeɪnstriːm/ Audio: en-us-mainstream.ogg [US] Forms: mainstream [singular], [plural]
Etymology: main + stream Etymology templates: {{compound|main|stream}} main + stream Head templates: {{noun4}} [POS TABLE]
  1. The mainstream is something that is common or accepted by a lot of people.
    Sense id: simple-mainstream-en-noun-bxPVOs5x
{
  "categories": [],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "main",
        "2": "stream"
      },
      "expansion": "main + stream",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "main + stream",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "positive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "more mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "more": "true"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The news story wasn't covered by the mainstream media."
        },
        {
          "text": "The show quickly gained a mainstream audience."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is mainstream is used or accepted by a lot of people."
      ],
      "id": "simple-mainstream-en-adj-vS6vSYyo"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmeɪnstriːm/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-mainstream.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "mainstream"
}

{
  "categories": [],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "main",
        "2": "stream"
      },
      "expansion": "main + stream",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "main + stream",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun4"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "The mainstream is something that is common or accepted by a lot of people."
      ],
      "id": "simple-mainstream-en-noun-bxPVOs5x",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmeɪnstriːm/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-mainstream.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "singular-only"
  ],
  "word": "mainstream"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "Compound terms"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "main",
        "2": "stream"
      },
      "expansion": "main + stream",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "main + stream",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "positive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "more mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "more": "true"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The news story wasn't covered by the mainstream media."
        },
        {
          "text": "The show quickly gained a mainstream audience."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is mainstream is used or accepted by a lot of people."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmeɪnstriːm/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-mainstream.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "mainstream"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "Compound terms"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "main",
        "2": "stream"
      },
      "expansion": "main + stream",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "main + stream",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mainstream",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun4"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The mainstream is something that is common or accepted by a lot of people."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmeɪnstriːm/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-mainstream.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "singular-only"
  ],
  "word": "mainstream"
}

Download raw JSONL data for mainstream meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-08 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (51d164f and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.