mainmast
/ˈmeɪn.mæst/noun
mainmast is a noun meaning “The tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-I-N-M-A-S-T and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of mainmast is mainmasts.
What does mainmast mean?
noun
- 1
The tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship.
- 2
The second-foremost mast of a non-sailing ship with more than one mast.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce mainmast?
- UK /ˈmeɪn.mɑːst/
- UK /-məst/
- US /ˈmeɪn.mæst/
Mainmast has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mainmast.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mainmast
- mainmasts plural
- main-mast
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is mainmast?
Mainmast appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 111,684th 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).
Mainmast in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense mainmast:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | grand mât |
| German | Großmast |
| Portuguese | grande, mastro grande |
| Spanish | palo mayor |
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 mainmast come from?
From main + mast.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).