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:
Tyler Perry Studios boasts a replica of the White House, an airport terminal, two baseball fields, a strip mall, a residential neighborhood, and a golf course.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Locals in Bangkok have transformed a flooded street in front of a shopping mall into a temporary floating market during flooding in the city.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
And, with the museum’s dim lighting, dated technology and underutilized areas, it can feel at times as if one is wandering in a past-its-prime shopping mall or in the forgotten corner of an airport terminal.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026
A white veil from Claire’s at the mall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Just like when I was six and with Santa at the mall, I want to run and hug him.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
College-age affiliate marketers may be shifting toward Amazon and ShopMy, and away from Shein and malls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
"I'm super-obsessed with ube," university student Kym Trivino told AFP as she sipped an ube-matcha concoction at one of Manila's largest shopping malls.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
So, in the age of online shopping, what lies ahead for these medium-sized malls?
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
They’ve popped up in barns and on farms, in strip malls between an antique shop and an ax-throwing business and in churches, where lighting and sound for worship services is part of the curriculum.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
I told her that there had been rioting in malls all over America, and that no one knew why.
From "Feed" by M.T. Anderson
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