Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

maine

/meɪn/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.16 in modern English

Syllables
maine
IPA
/meɪn/
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A town in New York.

name

A town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin; named for the state.

name

A river in Maine, United States, flowing 5.5 miles from Pocomoonshine Lake in Princeton into Crawford Lake in Crawford.

name

University of Maine.

name

A river in Maine-et-Loire department, Pays de la Loire, France, a tributary of the Loire, flowing 12 km through the city of Angers from the confluence of the Mayenne and Sarthe into the Loire.

name

A Scottish and English surname from Old French, a variant of Main.

Example Sentences

Etymology

The US state is from French Maine, named by its French explorers after the province in France with the same name. From Old French Cemaine, from Latin *Cenomania, from the name of the Gaulish Cenomani tribe of Gallia Celtica. The word was rebracketed as ce (“this”) + Maine, and the ce- was lost by the 12th century.

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: Maine, Cemaine, *Cenomania, -, Maine#Etymology_2_2, Meduāna

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /meɪn/
  • British English: /meɪn/

Usage

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Mainer Mainiot Mainiote ME Castlemaine

Phrases

Bas-Maine Haut-Maine Maine Coon Maine-et-Loire

Homonyms

Rhymes With

Questions

How do you pronounce maine?
The recorded pronunciation is /meɪn/.
What does maine mean?
A former province of Pays de la Loire, France. Capital: Le Mans.
Where does maine come from?
It is traced to French.

How to pronounce maine

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “maine”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/meɪn/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “maine”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “maine” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.