mainly

English

Etymology

From Middle English maynly; equivalent to main +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪnli/

Adverb

mainly (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Forcefully, vigorously. [13th-17th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Mainly they all attonce vpon him laid, / And sore beset on euery side around […]

2. (obsolete) Of the production of a sound: loudly, powerfully. [14th-19th c.]
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
3. (obsolete) To a great degree; very much. [15th-19th c.]
4. Chiefly; for the most part. [from 17th c.]
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 12, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     She had Lord James' collar in one big fist and she pounded the table with the other and talked a blue streak. Nobody could make out plain what she said, for she was mainly jabbering Swede lingo, but there was English enough, of a kind, to give us some idee.

Synonyms

• (forcefully): energetically, powerfully, strongly
• (loudly): earsplittingly, lustily, raucously, thunderously
• (to a great degree): a lot, extremely
• (for the most part): in the main, principally; see also Thesaurus:mostly

Translations

chiefly; for the most part

• Arabic: غَالِبًا (ḡāliban)
• Belarusian: гало́ўным чы́нам (halóŭnym čýnam)
• Catalan: principalment (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 主要地 (zh) (zhǔyào de)

• Dutch: voornamelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: ĉefe (eo), precipe (eo)
• Finnish: pääosin, suurimmaksi osaksi, pääasiassa (fi), etupäässä, pääasiallisesti (fi), lähinnä (fi), enimmäkseen (fi), pitkälti
• French: surtout (fr), principalement (fr)
• Georgian: ძირითადად (ʒiritadad)
• German: hauptsächlich (de)
• Greek: κυρίως (el) (kyríos)
• Hebrew: בעיקר
• Hungarian: főleg (hu)
• Italian: principalmente (it)
• Japanese: おもに (ja) (omo ni), 主に (ja) (おもに, omo ni)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 주로 (ko) (juro)
• Norman: prîncipalement
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hovedsakelig (no), overveiende

  Nynorsk: hovudsakleg

• Occitan: principalament
• Polish: głównie (pl)
• Portuguese: principalmente (pt)
• Romanian: îndeosebi (ro), mai ales, mai cu seamă
• Russian: гла́вным о́бразом (ru) (glávnym óbrazom), в основно́м (ru) (v osnovnóm)
• Spanish: principalmente (es)
• Swedish: huvudsakligen (sv)
• Ukrainian: головни́м чи́ном (uk) (holovným čýnom), переважно (uk) (perevažno), головно (holovno)
• Volapük: ledino (vo)
• Yiddish: דער עיקר (der iker)

See also

• amain

Anagrams

• Milyan, aminyl, amylin

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Middle English

Adverb

mainly

1. Alternative form of maynly