different between main vs channel

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: m?n, IPA^(key): /me?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Homophones: mane, Maine

Etymology 1

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæin, meyn, from main (noun) (see further at etymology 2); compare Old English mægen- (“strong, main, principal”) (used in combination) and Old Norse megn, megenn (“strong, main”). The word is cognate with Old High German meg?n (“strong, mighty”) (modern German Möge, Vermögen (“power, wealth”)), and also akin to Old English magan (“to be able to”). See also may.

Adjective

main (not comparable)

1. Of chief or leading importance; prime, principal. [from 15th c.]
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious

     Religion direct us rather to ?ecure inward peace than outward ea?e, to be more careful to avoid everla?ting and intolerable torment than ?hort and light afflictions which are but for a moment; […] In a word, our main intere?t is to be as happy as we can, and as long as is po??ible; and if we be ca?t into ?uch circum?tances, that we mu?t be either in part and for a time or el?e wholly and always mi?erable, the be?t wi?dom is to chu?e the greate?t and mo?t la?ting happiness, but the lea?t and ?horte?t mi?ery.
2. Chief, most important, or principal in extent, size, or strength; consisting of the largest part.

   Synonym: largest
3. (archaic, of force, strength, etc.) Full, sheer, undivided. [from 16th c.]
4. (dialectal) Big; angry.
5. (nautical) Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
6. (obsolete) Great in size or degree; important, powerful, strong, vast.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

main (comparative more main, superlative most main)

1. (Britain, dialectal) Exceedingly, extremely, greatly, mightily, very, very much.

Verb

main (third-person singular simple present mains, present participle maining, simple past and past participle mained)

1. (transitive) Short for mainline (“to inject (a drug) directly into a vein”).
2. (transitive, gaming) To mainly play a specific character, or side, during a game.
3. (obsolete) To convert (a road) into a main or primary road.

Etymology 2

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæine, mæ?en, from Old English mæ?en (“strength”), from Proto-Germanic *magin? (“strength, power, might”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *meg?- (“be able”). The word is cognate with Old High German magen, megin, Old Norse magn, megn, megin, Old Saxon megin. More recent senses are derived from the adjective.

Noun

main (plural mains)

1. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the bulk, the greater part, gross.
   1. (video games) The primary character that one plays in a video game in which one can play more than one character.

      Antonym: alt

2. A large cable or pipe providing utility service to an area or a building, such as a water main or electric main. [from 17th c.]
3. (informal) Short for main course (“the principal dish of a meal”).

4. (now poetic) The high seas. [from 16th c.]
5. (now archaic, US dialectal) The mainland. [from 16th c.]
6. (nautical) Short for mainsail. [from 17th c.]
7. (obsolete, except in might and main) Force, power, strength, violent effort. [from 9th c.]

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain; probably from the adjective main. Evidence is lacking for a derivation from French main (“hand”).

Noun

main (plural mains)

1. (obsolete, gaming) A hand or match in a game of dice.
2. (obsolete, gaming) The largest throw in a match at dice; in the game of hazard, a number from one to nine called out by a person before the dice are thrown.
3. (obsolete, gaming) A stake played for at dice.
4. (obsolete, gaming, sports) A sporting contest or match, especially a cockfighting match.
5. A banker's shovel for coins.

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain, possibly from French main (“hand”).

Noun

main (plural mains)

1. (obsolete, rare) A basket for gathering grapes.

References

Further reading

• main (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Main (power) in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Amin, Iman, Mani, Mian, Mina, NAMI, NIMA, Naim, amin, iman, mani, mina

Cimbrian

Alternative forms

• moi (Luserna)

Etymology

From Middle High German m?n, form Old High German m?n, from Proto-West Germanic *m?n, from Proto-Germanic *m?naz (“my, mine”). Cognate with German mein, English mine.

Determiner

main (plural main, bon/dar maindarn) (Sette Comuni)

1. (attributive) my

2. (predicative) mine

Usage notes

The following rules apply to all Sette Comuni Cimbrian possessive determiners:

• They are inflected by number and gender in only exclamations (i.e. vocative case).
• Before nouns, they are inflected for number only and follow the corresponding definite article (a form of dar).
  • The plural ending is -en, or -? when the pronoun itself ends in -n.
• Predicatively, they are uninflected and the definite article is not used.
• Following bon (“of”) or dar (the only surviving trace of a genitive definite article; used for all numbers and genders) they end in -darn.

Inflection

See also

References

• “main” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin m?ne, from m?. Compare Romanian mine.

Pronoun

main

1. (first-person singular pronoun, oblique case) me

Related terms

• me
• ju

Finnish

Noun

main

1. Instructive plural form of maa.

See also

• jossain näillä main

Anagrams

• mani, mina, nami

French

Etymology

From Middle French main, Old French main, mein, man, from Latin manus (“hand”), from Proto-Italic *manus, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh?- (“to beckon”). Compare Spanish mano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??/
• Homophones: mains, maint, maints
• Hyphenation: main

Noun

main f (plural mains)

1. hand
2. (soccer) handball
3. (poker) hand

Synonyms

• louche
• mimine
• paluche
• pince

Meronyms

• doigt
• dos
• paume
• poignet
• pouce

Holonyms

• bras

Derived terms

Related terms

• manche
• manicle
• manier
• manipuler
• manivelle
• manuel

Descendants

• ? German: Lamäng

Further reading

• “main” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• mina

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay main

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /main/
• Hyphenation: main

Verb

main (bermain)

1. to play

Derived terms

Further reading

• “main” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Kaiep

Noun

main

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)
• Stephen Adolphe Wurm, New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study (1976)

Malay

Etymology

A phonemical reduction from Pre-Malayic *q-um-ayam, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qayam.

Pronunciation

• (Johor-Selangor) IPA^(key): /maen/
• (Riau-Lingga) IPA^(key): /ma?n/
• Rhymes: -aen, -en

Verb

main (Jawi spelling ?????, used in the form bermain)

1. to play

Derived terms

Descendants

• Indonesian: main

References

• "main" in Kamus Dewan, Fourth Edition, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, ?ISBN, 2005.
• “main” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Middle English

Noun

main

1. Alternative form of mayn

Adjective

main

1. Alternative form of mayn

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French main, mein, man, from Latin manus.

Noun

main f (plural mains)

1. (anatomy) hand

Descendants

• French: main

Norman

Alternative forms

• man (continental Normandy)
• môin (Guernsey)

Etymology

From Old French main, mein, man, from Latin manus (“hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *man-.

Pronunciation

Noun

main f (plural mains)

1. (Jersey, anatomy) hand

Derived terms

• brînge à main f (“brush”)
• marté à deux mains m (“sledgehammer”)

Related terms

• dé (“finger”)

Northern Sami

Pronoun

main

1. locative plural of mii

Old French

Alternative forms

• mein, man

Etymology

From Latin manus.

Noun

main f (oblique plural mainz, nominative singular main, nominative plural mainz)

1. (anatomy) hand

Descendants

• Middle French: main
  • French: main
• Norman: main
• Walloon: mwin

Welsh

Etymology

Cognate with Breton moan, Cornish moon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mai?n/

Adjective

main (feminine singular main, plural meinion, equative meined, comparative meinach, superlative meinaf)

1. slender, thin

   Synonym: tenau

2. fine

   Synonym: mân

Mutation

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?æn?l/
• Hyphenation: chan?nel
• Rhymes: -æn?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English chanel (also as canel, cannel, kanel), a borrowing from Old French chanel, canel, from Latin can?lis (“groove; canal; channel”). Doublet of canal.

Noun

channel (plural channels)

1. The physical confine of a river or slough, consisting of a bed and banks.

   The water coming out of the waterwheel created a standing wave in the channel.

2. The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.

   A channel was dredged to allow ocean-going vessels to reach the city.

3. The navigable part of a river.

   We were careful to keep our boat in the channel.

4. A narrow body of water between two land masses.

   The English Channel lies between France and England.
5. Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.

   The news was conveyed to us by different channels.

   • 1859, John Call Dalton, A Treatise on Human Physiology

     The veins are converging channels.

   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National Assembly such matter as may import that body to know.

6. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
7. (electronics) A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.

   The guard-rail provided the channel between the downed wire and the tree.

8. (electronics) The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
9. (communication) The part that connects a data source to a data sink.

   A channel stretches between them.

10. (communication) A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.

    We are using one of the 24 channels.

11. (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.

    The channel is created by bonding the signals from these four pairs.

12. (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.

    Their call is being carried on channel 6 of the T-1 line.

13. (broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.

    KNDD is the channel at 107.7 MHz in Seattle.

14. (broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.

    NBC is on channel 11 in San Jose.

    • 2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xi

      TV back then was five channels (three networks, PBS, and an independent station that ran I Love Lucy reruns), […]

15. (storage) The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.

    This chip in this disk drive is the channel device.

16. (technic) The way in a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.

    The liquid is pressurized in the lateral channel.

17. (business, marketing) A distribution channel
18. (Internet) A particular area for conversations on an IRC network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.
19. (Internet, historical) A means of delivering up-to-date Internet content.
    • 1999, Jeffrey S Rule, Dynamic HTML: The HTML Developer's Guide

      Netcaster is the "receiver" for channels that are built into Netscape 4.01 and later releases.
20. A psychic or medium who temporarily takes on the personality of somebody else.

Synonyms

• (narrow body of water between two land masses) passage, sound, strait
• (for television) side (dated British, from when there were only two channels), station (US)
• (groove, as in a fluted column) groove, gutter

Derived terms

Related terms

• canal

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ????? (channeru)
• ? Korean: ?? (chaeneol)
• ? Welsh: sianel

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English chanelen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

channel (third-person singular simple present channels, present participle channeling or channelling, simple past and past participle channelled or channeled)

1. (transitive) To make or cut a channel or groove in.
2. (transitive) To direct or guide along a desired course.

   We will channel the traffic to the left with these cones.

3. (transitive, of a spirit, as of a dead person) To serve as a medium for.

   She was channeling the spirit of her late husband, Seth.

4. (transitive) To follow as a model, especially in a performance.

   He was trying to channel President Reagan, but the audience wasn't buying it.

   When it is my turn to sing karaoke, I am going to channel Ray Charles.

Derived terms

• backchannel

Translations

Etymology 3

From a corruption of chainwale.

Noun

channel (plural channels)

1. (nautical) The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.

References

• channel at OneLook Dictionary Search