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:
Brazley said her children had been going to the mall for decades but had “never experienced anything like this before.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
One employee of a nearby store, forbidden from speaking to the press by her employer, guessed she’d seen 30 people taken from the area around this shopping mall alone.
From Slate ● Oct. 26, 2026
Near one large shopping mall lies an open-air market where this shift is noticeable.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
Janko recalled the nerve-racking moment of spotting the other couple across the mall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
At the mall today I’m sitting with Mom, waiting for Dad and Anastasia.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
State-backed companies are flooding the region with cash, tourism pumped $50 billion into the local economy last year, and shopping malls are jammed with Western brands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
The 67-year-old developer is behind popular L.A. malls, including the Grove and the Americana at Brand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
So, in the age of online shopping, what lies ahead for these medium-sized malls?
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 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
Amid the gas stations, strip malls, fast-food joints, and the tangle of roads and highways, open space in Clarkston was hard to find.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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