mainstream

See also: Mainstream

English

Etymology

From main +‎ stream. Cognate with Icelandic meginstraumur (“a main current, mainstream”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

mainstream (comparative more mainstream, superlative most mainstream)

  1. Used or accepted broadly rather than by small portions of population, market, scientific community, etc.
    They often carry stories you won't find in the mainstream media.
    Lots of ideas currently in the mainstream weren't at one time.
    • 2011, Taner Edis, Science and Nonbelief, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 153:
      As unsubstantiated claims receive significant backing, skeptics and defenders of mainstream science enter the fray.
    • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Aylesbury (2009)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61:
      The mainstream media hones in on bad news stories where UK railways are concerned, yet gives scant attention to the many items of good news emerging from the network.
    • 2022 April 20, Rim-Sarah Alouane, “Marine Le Pen Is as Dangerous as Ever”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 March 2025:
      If Ms. Le Pen looks more mainstream now, it’s because the mainstream looks more like her.

Usage notes

  • Nouns often used with "mainstream": media, music, art, press, news, society, culture, economics, school, party, politics, religion, education, theory, science, philosophy, views

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

Noun

mainstream (plural mainstreams)

  1. The principal current in a flow, such as a river or flow of air
  2. (usually with the) That which is common; the norm.
    ideas outside of the mainstream
    • 1988 September 30, Tom Wicker, quoting George H. W. Bush, “Ol' Man Mainstream”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 April 2023:
      George Herbert Walker Bush of Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University proclaimed in the first Presidential candidates' debate that he was “in touch with the mainstream of America.”
    • 1991 July 14, Andrew Pollack, “A Quirky Loner Goes Mainstream”, in The New York Times‎[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 April 2023:
      Long content with being the BMW of the computer industry, suppying finely crafted machines to a relatively small number of fanatic customers, Apple now wants to become a Ford or Toyota, to move into the mainstream.
    • 2021 October 20, Dr Joseph Brennan, “A key part of our diverse railway heritage”, in RAIL, number 942, page 55:
      "Railways seldom slavishly followed styles to be seen in the mainstream of contemporary architecture," HE [Historic England] explains.

Translations

Verb

mainstream (third-person singular simple present mainstreams, present participle mainstreaming, simple past and past participle mainstreamed)

  1. (transitive) To popularize, to normalize, to render mainstream.
    • 2011, Jeff Change, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, page 420:
      Just as the gang peace movement desired to mainstream hardcore bangers into civic society, The Chronic wanted to drive hardcore rap into the popstream.
    • 2025 May 23, Charlie Warzel, “What Are People Still Doing on X?”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic‎[4], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 February 2026:
      Acknowledging the role X plays in mainstreaming the worst constituencies makes for awkward conversations with those who continue to use it.
  2. (intransitive) To become mainstream.
    • 2013, Catherine L. Albanese, America: Religions and Religion, 5th edition, Boston: Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 262:
      In a nonchurch context, we can look more explicitly at formerly New Age practices to see if and how they have mainstreamed.
  3. (transitive, education, chiefly US) To educate (a disabled student) together with non-disabled students.

Derived terms

References

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English mainstream

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmeːn.striːm/
  • (Netherlands) IPA(key): [ˈmeɪ̯.nstriːm̥]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːm
  • Hyphenation: main‧stream

Adjective

mainstream (comparative meer mainstream, superlative meest mainstream)

  1. mainstream
    Antonyms: alternatief, fringe

Noun

mainstream m (uncountable, no diminutive)

  1. (with de) mainstream ("that what is common")
    Synonym: de hoofdstroom
    Antonym: het alternatieve

Polish

Etymology

    Unadapted borrowing from English mainstream.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈmɛjn.strim/
    • Rhymes: -ɛjnstrim
    • Syllabification: main‧stream

    Noun

    mainstream m inan (related adjective mainstreamowy)

    1. mainstream (dominant way of thinking or the most popular form of action)
    2. (jazz) mainstream jazz (term coined in the 1950s by music journalist Stanley Dance, who considered anything within the popular jazz of the Swing Era "mainstream", and did not include the bebop style)

    Declension

    Declension of mainstream
    singular
    nominative mainstream
    genitive mainstreamu
    dative mainstreamowi
    accusative mainstream
    instrumental mainstreamem
    locative mainstreamie
    vocative mainstreamie

    Further reading

    • “mainstream”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎[6] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
    • “mainstream”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎[7] (in Polish)
    • mainstream in PWN's encyclopedia

    Spanish

    Etymology

      Unadapted borrowing from English mainstream.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ˈmeinstɾim/ [ˈmẽĩns.t̪ɾĩm]
      • Rhymes: -einstɾim
      • Syllabification: mains‧tream

      Noun

      mainstream m (plural mainstreams)

      1. mainstream

      Usage notes

      According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

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