mall
Americannoun
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malls
plural
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Also called shopping mall. a large retail complex containing a variety of stores and often restaurants and other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building.
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a large area, usually lined with shade trees and shrubbery, used as a public walk or promenade.
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Chiefly Upstate New York. a strip of land, usually planted or paved, separating lanes of opposite traffic on highways, boulevards, etc.
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the game of pall-mall.
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the mallet used in the game of pall-mall.
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the place or alley where pall-mall was played.
noun
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a shaded avenue, esp one that is open to the public
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short for shopping mall
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mall
1635–45; the Mall, a fashionable tree-lined promenade in 18th-century London, where originally the game pall-mall ( def. ) was played; see mell 2
Explanation
A mall is a large shopping center. If you want to spend your day buying clothes and eating in a food court, the mall is the place for you. Indoor malls are commonly several stories high, the different levels connected with escalators. There can be dozens or even hundreds of stores inside a mall, along with places to eat, drink, and rest, and often to watch movies, play video games, or even ride on a carousel. Outdoor malls are either organized like old-fashioned downtown areas, with trees and sidewalks, or just a row of shops with a large parking lot — also called a "strip mall."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Meanwhile: The fictional Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza from the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” videogames and movies is getting a real-life location at the American Dream shopping mall in East Rutherford, N.J., complete with animatronic stage shows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
One problem was that the location is not exactly remote; the torn-down mall once served families who live in an apartment complex right next door, with a school, a hospital, and a childcare center nearby.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Santa Monica put screens on every block of the Third Street Promenade for World Cup watch parties where patrons were allowed to carry alcoholic beverages within a specific area of the open-air mall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Two workers who died in a shopping mall explosion that followed a powerful earthquake in Japan last week were asked by a boss to re-enter the building to secure cash.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
My mind was a couple of hours ahead on the dinosaur poop gag we were about to play on the scientists’ office at the strip mall.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
“The younger generation goes to malls that have a ton of ‘street food’… The plus is that there is air conditioning.”
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
People flocked to air-conditioned shopping malls or cafes to escape the blistering temperatures, an AFP reporter saw.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
He plans to reopen some closed stands and add hundreds of outlets, expanding to locations beyond malls, such as airports, stadiums, amusement parks and drive-thrus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Homegrown businesses, such as beauty brand Amortals and streetwear label Wah Yan Ching Nin, have also placed ads outside shopping malls across the country, calling for an end to animal abuse.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The malls seemed so phony—all that glitter and shiny stuff—giant green balls and red ribbons hung from the ceiling, with signs like, The Magic of the Season Is at Midtowne Mall.
From "Tears of a Tiger" by Sharon M. Draper
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
