mall

noun

ˈmȯl 

 especially British and for sense 1  ˈmal

1

: an alley used for pall-mall

2

[The Mall, promenade in London, originally a pall-mall alley]

a

: a usually public area often set with shade trees and designed as a promenade or as a pedestrian walk

b

: a usually paved or grassy strip between two roadways

3

a

: an urban shopping area featuring a variety of shops surrounding a usually open-air concourse reserved for pedestrian traffic

b

: a usually large suburban building or group of buildings containing various shops with associated passageways

Synonyms

• promenade
• boardwalk
• walkway

Examples of mall in a Sentence

They spent the afternoon shopping at the mall.

the pedestrian traffic through the grassy mall is heaviest during the summer lunch hours

Recent Examples on the Web

Last month, the village had to agree to a new mall, about 450 new housing units, a 5-story fitness center, and a hotel with 120 rooms. —Denise Hruby updated July 13, Miami Herald, 13 July 2025

Colerain Township officials provided no further details. Xscape, which opened at the mall in 2013, shut down a decade later in the wake of a series of store closures that contributed to the mall's decline. —Randy Tucker, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

For the past few months, several of the mall's stores stores relocated to the north end to stay open throughout construction. —Alysa Guffey, IndyStar, 2 July 2025

There are 10 locations open now in malls across the country. —Sabrina Weiss, People.com, 2 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

short for obsolete pall-mall mallet used in pall-mall

First Known Use

circa 1660, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing mall

• pall-mall
• shopping mall
• strip mall

Rhymes for mall

• ahl
• all
• aul
• bawl
• brawl
• call
• caul
• crawl
• dol
• doll
• drawl
• fall

Kids Definition

mall

noun

ˈmȯl 

1

: a shaded walk : promenade

2

: a usually paved or grassy strip between two roadways

3

a

: a group of stores and often restaurants arranged about an often covered way for pedestrians

b

: a usually large suburban building or group of buildings containing shops and often restaurants with connecting passageways

Etymology

a shortened form of pall-mall "a game similar to croquet formerly played in England," literally "ball-mallet"

Word Origin

In Italy in the 1500s a popular alley game similar to croquet was known as pallamaglio, from palla "ball," and maglio "mallet." The game (and word) was adopted by the French as pallemalle and in the 1600s by the English as pall-mall. The alley on which the game was played came to be known as a mall. One of the best known of these alleys, covered with sand and crushed shells, was located in London's St. James Park and was known as "The Mall." After the game lost favor, the Mall at St. James, as it continued to be called, was turned into a fashionable walkway with trees and flowers. Similar open-air places came to be called malls also. In the 20th century the word was applied to other public spaces, including the shopping complexes we now know as malls.