mainly
/ˈmeɪnli/adverb
mainly is spelled M-A-I-N-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is mailny: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 33 of all searches for the word. Mainly is an adverb meaning “Of a person or thing being the driving force influencing the outcome of an event; chiefly; certainly for the…”.
How many letters and syllables are in mainly?
| Letters | 6: M-A-I-N-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 40 times per million words; the 2,487th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mailny, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell mainly?
Mainly is spelled M-A-I-N-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 33 of the searches for mainly in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mainly?
Mainly appears 40 times per million words in written English, the 2,487th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mainly?
- UK /ˈmeɪnli/
Mainly has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mainly.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mainly?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as mainly (/eɪnli/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: amylin.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does mainly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Of a person or thing being the driving force influencing the outcome of an event; chiefly; certainly for the most part.
- 2
obsoleteForcefully, vigorously.
- 3
obsoleteOf the production of a sound: loudly, powerfully.
- 4
obsoleteTo a great degree; very much.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mainly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense chiefly; certainly for the most part:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | surtout, principalement |
| German | hauptsächlich |
| Portuguese | principalmente |
| Spanish | máxime, mayormente, máximamente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mainly come from?
From Middle English maynly; equivalent to main + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).