WikiWord

English

mainspring

noun

Meaning

  1. The principal spring of a clockwork mechanism, which drives it by uncoiling.
  2. The most important reason for something (Cf. spring "origin of something" (literary) (often in the plural) the springs of her ambition).

Etymology / origin

No prose etymology has been added yet.

No ancestor words have been linked yet.

Related words

Descendant words

No descendant words have been linked yet.

Sources

  1. DictionaryAPI.dev English dictionary data
mainspring — meaning and etymology | WikiWord