noun
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nautical the forestay that braces the mainmast
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a chief support
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mainstay
Explanation
A mainstay is something that acts as a source of support for a community. If your hometown's economy depends on tourists visiting every summer, you could say that tourism is the mainstay of your town. A mainstay holds everything together, whether it's your grandmother who acts as the anchor of your whole crazy family, a pillar that physically keeps a building from falling down, or the job that enables you to pay your rent every month. The noun mainstay is originally a nautical term meaning the rope that stabilizes two masts on a sailboat, and since the 1780s it's been used to mean "chief support."
Vocabulary lists containing mainstay
Beowulf
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This Week In Culture: October 5–11, 2019
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Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
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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:
Just when critics thought that playing loud characters was his mainstay, he proved them wrong by delivering a mesmerising performance in Khamoshi as a person who could not hear or speak.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Migrant workers and vacationers are FlyDubai’s mainstay customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Ishan Kishan was India's mainstay with a crafted 80 not out, including five sixes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Stowing cash in a high-yield account became a mainstay of financial advice on TikTok.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Millions of acres of forests were sprayed instead of thou sands as before, in an effort to save the balsams, which are the mainstay of the pulp and paper industry.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Warner and Paramount were mainstays of Hollywood’s golden era, but streaming brought tough competition from technology companies such as Netflix and Amazon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Circularity and self-referentiality are mainstays in Cowin’s work, wry disruptor that she is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
When I reported on the business of Starbucks last year, analysts pointed to a major shift happening in the drinks market: concept-forward drinks are outperforming other traditional mainstays in the landscape.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Kobliner went through three mainstays from her book with MarketWatch to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
From MarketWatch ● May 14, 2026
By contrast, swine, mainstays of European agriculture, transmit anthrax, brucellosis, leptospirosis, trichinosis, and tuberculosis.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
