Mainstream

/meɪn.stɹiːm/ · adjective

Meaning

Used or accepted broadly rather than by small portions of population, market, scientific community, etc..

Definitions by Sense

1. Used or accepted broadly rather than by small portions of population, market, scientific community, etc.
2. The principal current in a flow, such as a river or flow of air
3. (usually with the) That which is common; the norm.
4. (transitive) To popularize, to normalize, to render mainstream.
5. (intransitive) To become mainstream.
6. (transitive, education, chiefly US) To educate (a disabled student) together with non-disabled students.

Example Sentences

They often carry stories you won't find in the mainstream media.

As unsubstantiated claims receive significant backing, skeptics and defenders of mainstream science enter the fray.

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.

If Ms. Le Pen looks more mainstream now, it’s because the mainstream looks more like her.

ideas outside of the mainstream

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.”

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.

"Railways seldom slavishly followed styles to be seen in the mainstream of contemporary architecture," HE [Historic England] explains.

Synonyms for mainstream

Antonyms for mainstream

Related Words

Word Forms

• more mainstream
• most mainstream
• mainstreams
• mainstreaming
• mainstreamed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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