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• main street
  main street

  noun

  the principal thoroughfare, especially through the business district, in a small town.
• Main Street
  Main Street

  noun

  a novel (1920) by Sinclair Lewis.

main street

¹ American  

noun

• main streets
  plural

1. the principal thoroughfare, especially through the business district, in a small town.

2. (initial capital letters) the outlook, environment, or life of a small town.

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Main Street ² American  

noun

1. a novel (1920) by Sinclair Lewis.

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Main Street British  

noun

1. the most prominent street of a town, usually where the principal shops and businesses are situated

2. ordinary people in general

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• main streets
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of main street

First recorded in 1735–45

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

main street Main Street

The businesses lining the village's cobbled main street have embraced Halloween with colourful window displays, and none more so than The Cabinet of Curiosities.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026

Wangaratta's main street, where Haines's office is located, had reopened to traffic.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

Standing on Walton’s main street near a fried chicken shop, Morgan Price, 22, is one of a million young Brits who aren’t in school, don’t have a job and aren’t training for one.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

"International politics is very difficult," Comerford told AFP outside his pub on Doonbeg's main street.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

In silence they passed the wooden hotel, where a tourist was huddled on the porch out of the wind; then they stepped onto the main street, where the stores stood.

From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George

Further down Main Street, Claire Austin runs Silverland with Passion, her family jewellery business.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026

On markets: There’s a growing disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street, with the state of the economy having less impact on stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

Both Disney and the company have long told this tale, and a bench, as well as one of the original horses from the carousel, can be found on Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

One or two rate increases will hardly affect Main Street, or Wall Street for that matter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

I savored the thought of helping Roberto clean Main Street School and not having to work in the fields any longer after school.

From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez

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