overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mainstay.

A chief support.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmeɪn.steɪ/
  1. A chief support.

    Agriculture is the mainstay of this country’s economy.
  2. Someone or something that can be depended on to make a regular contribution.

  3. A stabilising rope from high on the mainmast to the base of the foremast.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English main stai, equivalent to main + stay (“rope”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

mainstay has 8 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

mainstay studiomainstay workshello, mainstay

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.