What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Main vs Lively - What's the difference?

main | lively |

As a noun main

is .

As a proper noun lively is

.

main

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (may).

Adjective

(-)
  • (label) Great in size or degree; vast; strong; powerful; important.
  • * (Samuel Daniel) (1562-1619)
  • Principal; prime; chief; leading; of chief or principal importance.
  • * (John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=5 , passage=By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.}}
  • Principal or chief in size or extent; largest; consisting of the largest part; most important by reason or size or strength.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.
  • Full; undivided; sheer (of strength, force etc.).
  • * 1817 , (Walter Scott), , XII:
  • (label) Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
  • (label) Big; angry.
    • Derived terms
    * main drag * main road

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Very; very much; greatly; mightily; extremely; exceedingly.
  • * 1799 , Samuel Foote, The works of Samuel Foote :
  • * 1840 , Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Leigh Hunt, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The dramatic works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan :

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , later also taking senses from the adjective.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * Spenser
  • That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the gross; the bulk; the greater part.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • * 1858 , Humphrey Prideaux, James Talboys Wheeler, An historical connection of the Old and New Testaments :
  • * Francis Bacon
  • * 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, page 90:
  • * 1624 , John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes (Meditation XVII):
  • * 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick :
  • * Dryden
  • A large pipe or cable providing utility service to a building or area, such as water main or electric main.
  • (label) The mainsail.
    • Quotations
    * (English Citations of "main")
    Derived terms
    {{der3, (large pipe or cable) gas main, mains (qualifier), water main , in the main , main brace , main drag , maincrop , mainframe , mainland , mainline, main line , mainmast , mainplane , mainsail , mainsheet , mainspring , mainstreet, main street , maintop , maintopmast}}

    Etymology 3

    ; compare (manual).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hand or match in a game of dice.
    • (Prior)
    (Thackeray)
  • A stake played for at dice.
  • * Shakespeare, The First Park of King Henry IV
  • The largest throw in a match at dice; a throw at dice within given limits, as in the game of hazard.
  • A match at cockfighting.
  • * Thackeray
  • A main-hamper, or fruit basket.
    • (Ainsworth)

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    External links

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    lively

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) lyvely, lifly, from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Full of life; energetic.
  • * 1671 , (John Milton), (Samson Agonistes)
    • But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haste, / With youthful steps? Much livelier than erewhile / He seems.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=[…] St.?Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 29, author=Jon Smith, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers , passage=But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.}}
  • Bright; vivid; glowing; strong; vigorous.
  • * 1704 , (Isaac Newton), (Opticks): Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light
    • The colours of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.
  • * 1688 , (Robert South), Sacramental Preparation: Set forth in a Sermon on Matthew 5, 12.
    • His faith must be not only living, but lively too.
  • (archaic) Endowed with or manifesting life; living.
  • * c. 1600 , (Philemon Holland)
    • chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves
  • (archaic) Representing life; lifelike.
  • * 1632 , (Philip Massinger) and (Nathan Field), (The Fatal Dowry)
    • I spied the lively picture of my father.
  • (archaic) Airy; animated; spirited.
  • * 1734 , (Alexander Pope), (An Essay on Man)
    • From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
  • (of beer) Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.
    • Usage notes
    * Nouns to which "lively" is often applied: person, character, lady, woman, man, audience, personality, art, guide, activity, game, lesson, introduction, discussion, debate, writing, image, town, city, village, etc.
    Derived terms
    * look lively

    Noun

    (livelies)
  • (nautical)
  • * 1846 , (Herman Melville), (Typee)
    • Speak the word, my livelies , and I'll pilot her in.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) In a lifelike manner.
  • * , III.i:
    • Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew, / Which in that cloth was wrought, as if it liuely grew.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220-1:
    • the Painter Protogenes .
  • Vibrantly, vividly.

    • Anagrams

    * *