mall
Americannoun
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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
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.
The stolen track chases him everywhere: on the radio, overheard at the mall, even at his own gigs where newlyweds cluelessly ask him to play “their” special song.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
"For a lot of people born in the 1990s and 2000s... this mall is a stranger."
From Barron's • May 27, 2026
Police received two hits for the license plate — both prior to the shooting, including one at the Fashion Valley mall about six miles from Clark’s home.
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026
Today, Kuwait boasts the world’s second-largest shopping mall and plenty of luxury outlets, but it lacks Dubai’s futuristic feel.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
Maddy’s looking down at her nails as if Mrs. Kluck’s announcement is written on them, and I suddenly wonder if she’s embarrassed to look at me after her outburst in the mall.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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.
