mainstream

American  

[meyn-streem] / ˈmeɪnˌstrim /

noun

mainstreams plural

1. the principal or dominant course, tendency, or trend.

   the mainstream of American culture.

2. a river having tributaries.

3. regular school classes or regular schools.

   keeping autistic students in the mainstream.

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adjective

1. belonging to or characteristic of a principal, dominant, or widely accepted group, movement, style, etc..

   mainstream Republicans;

   a mainstream artist;

   mainstream media.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of jazz falling historically between Dixieland and modern jazz; specifically, swing music.

verb (used with object)

1. to send into the mainstream; cause to join the main force, group, etc..

   to mainstream young people into the labor force.

2. to place (students with disabilities) in regular school classes.

verb (used without object)

1. to join or be placed in the mainstream.

mainstream British  

/ ˈmeɪnˌstriːm /

noun

1. 1. the main current (of a river, cultural trend, etc)

      in the mainstream of modern literature

   2. ( as modifier )

      mainstream politics

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adjective

1. of or relating to the style of jazz that lies between the traditional and the modern

mainstream Cultural  

1. The prevailing current or direction of a movement or influence: “The candidate's speech represented the mainstream thinking on economic policy.”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mainstreams
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mainstream

First recorded in 1660–70; main ¹ + stream

Explanation

Mainstream describes what's viewed by most people in a society as "normal," like the mainstream view that everyone should get married, move to the suburbs, and have children as soon as they can. Something that's mainstream is conventional, or the usual way of doing things. If you're talking about the mainstream in fashion, you mean the ordinary clothes that most people wear and which is found in all the malls — nothing too weird or outlandish. In the 1600s, mainstream described the prevailing current of a river, with the first recorded use of its meaning of prevailing taste or opinion in 1831.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mainstream mainstreams

With Parsons now adapting the Backrooms for a feature-length horror thriller, the strange fictive world is rapidly entering mainstream discourse.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

I don’t consider myself in the mainstream one bit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

"Apple is about to do for foldables what it has done for every category it has entered, which is legitimise it for the mainstream," said Francisco Jeronimo at telecommunications analyst group IDC.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

The league needed credibility and he gave it something even broader: mainstream celebrity.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

We’re telling blacks that we can fix some of our problems ourselves, that we don’t have to wait to be accepted into the white mainstream to have our day come.”

From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon

After campaigns ended, they typically folded into the parties’ mainstreams and became leaders in subsequent electoral cycles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Each had previous experience in political office, and all fell within the ideological mainstreams of their respective parties.

From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2017

At this point, the mainstreams of the major parties are pretty close together.

From Slate ● Jun. 28, 2016

Radio formats created, I’ll argue in this book, multiple mainstreams: distinct, if at times overlapping, cultural centers.

From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2014

Nor does it necessarily appeal even to sophisticated tastes; it is for those who prefer mountain brooks to mainstreams.

From Time Magazine Archive