He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away.
Source: wiktionary
Mainspring
Synonyms for "mainspring" (38 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (8)
Strong matches (11)
Related words (19)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
21 translations across 19 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- زمبلك noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Armenian
1 entries- զսպանակ noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Catalan
1 entries- ressort motor noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Chinese
1 entries- 發條 /发条 noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Estonian
1 entries- vedru noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Finnish
1 entries- vieteri noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
French
1 entries- ressort moteur noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
German
3 entries- Antriebsfeder noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
- Hauptfeder noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
- Triebfeder noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Ido
1 entries- granda resorto noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Japanese
1 entries- ぜんまいばね noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Kannada
1 entries- ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಪ್ರೇರಣೆ noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Manx
1 entries- ard-lheimaghan noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Northern Kurdish
1 entries- zenbelka serekî noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Polish
1 entries- sprężyna napędowa noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Spanish
1 entries- resorte motor noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Thai
1 entries- ลาน noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Turkish
1 entries- zemberek noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Urdu
1 entries- بڑی کمانی noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Vietnamese
1 entries- dây cót chính noun (the principal spring of a clockwork mechanism)
Sample sentences
3 total sentences available.
My daughter is the mainspring of my life.
Source: wiktionary
But in the England of Shakespeare’s history plays, the mainspring of the system has broken down.
Source: wiktionary
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.