Etymology From main + stream. Cognate with Icelandic meginstraumur (“a main current, mainstream”).
1
Used or accepted broadly rather than by small portions of population, market, scientific community, etc.
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.2011, Taner Edis, Science and Nonbelief, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 153:
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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.2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Aylesbury (2009)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61:
If Ms. Le Pen looks more mainstream now, it’s because the mainstream looks more like her.2022 April 20, Rim-Sarah Alouane, “Marine Le Pen Is as Dangerous as Ever”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Etymology From main + stream. Cognate with Icelandic meginstraumur (“a main current, mainstream”).
1
The principal current in a flow, such as a river or flow of air
2
Usually, With the That which is common; the norm.
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.”1988 September 30, Tom Wicker, quoting George H. W. Bush, “Ol' Man Mainstream”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
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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.1991 July 14, Andrew Pollack, “A Quirky Loner Goes Mainstream”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
"Railways seldom slavishly followed styles to be seen in the mainstream of contemporary architecture," HE [Historic England] explains.2021 October 20, Dr Joseph Brennan, “A key part of our diverse railway heritage”, in RAIL, number 942, page 55:
mainstream
verb
Etymology From main + stream. Cognate with Icelandic meginstraumur (“a main current, mainstream”).
1
To popularize, to normalize, to render mainstream.
Just as the gang peace movement desired to mainstream hardcore bangers into civic society, The Chronic wanted to drive hardcore rap into the popstream.2011, Jeff Change, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, page 420:
Acknowledging the role X plays in mainstreaming the worst constituencies makes for awkward conversations with those who continue to use it.2025 May 23, Charlie Warzel, “What Are People Still Doing on X?”, in The Atlantic:
2
To become mainstream.
In a nonchurch context, we can look more explicitly at formerly New Age practices to see if and how they have mainstreamed.2013, Catherine L. Albanese, America: Religions and Religion, 5th edition, Boston: Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 262:
3
EducationUS To educate (a disabled student) together with non-disabled students.
Despite these beliefs, the decision to send my son to a regular school was not made easily. I didn't know of any child as disabled as he who had been mainstreamed.1985 April 14, Barbara Gerbasi, “Mainstreaming My Son”, in The New York Times, →ISSN: