mainly
- 1For the most part; more than anything else.
The museum's collection is mainly composed of nineteenth-century paintings.
Visitors arrive mainly during the warmer summer months.
UsageOften placed just before the part it limits: mainly because it's cheap, mainly to save money, made up mainly of beginners.
Similarmostly, largely, chiefly, primarily, principally
- 2In great measure; greatly or exceedingly.
Note
An obsolete intensifier that did the work of very much or greatly. It is the old meaning most easily mistaken for the modern "chiefly" meaning, because both are about degree. In older prose, ask whether the word says how much or which part. Today greatly or exceedingly does this job.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Mainly formerly meant to a great degree or very much; this sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- 3With great force or vigor; forcefully.
Note
An adverb of effort that Elizabethan poets still used freely. Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great gives a hero shoulders that might mainly bear Atlas's burden, and Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) has attackers who mainly fall on one man all at once. A modern reader hears the "chiefly" meaning in these lines, so read forcefully or vigorously instead. The sense is obsolete and does not belong in new writing.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Mainly historically meant forcefully or vigorously, including during the Elizabethan period. en.wiktionary.org
- Christopher Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine the Great. gutenberg.org
- In Tamburlaine the Great, Menaphon describes Tamburlaine's shoulders as capable of mainly bearing Atlas's burden. gutenberg.org
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, whose first three books first appeared in 1590. en.wikipedia.org
- The Faerie Queene describes attackers mainly assailing one man simultaneously. en.wikisource.org
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Origin
From Middle English maynly, equivalent to "main" plus the suffix "-ly".
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Mainly derives from Middle English maynly and is equivalent to main plus -ly. en.wiktionary.org