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{{Short description|Phase of a meal}}
{{About|the meal component|the Bee Gees album|Main Course}}
{{Meals}}

A '''main course''' is the featured or primary dish in a [[meal]] consisting of several [[course (food)|course]]s. It usually follows the [[entrée]] ({{literally|entry}}) course.

==Usage==
In the United States and Canada (except [[Quebec]]), the main course is traditionally called an "'''entrée'''".<ref>{{cite dictionary|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/entree_1|encyclopedia=Cambridge Dictionary|entry=entrée|title=ENTRÉE &#124; meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary}}</ref><ref name="etiquette">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TL8PFlYRkUC&q=entree+main+course&pg=PA99 | title=Commonsense Etiquette: A Guide to Gracious, Simple Manners for the Twenty-First Century | year=1999 | author=Stewart, Marjabelle Young and Elizabeth Lawrence | publisher=St. Martin's Press | page=99| isbn=9780312242947 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-22/sure-you-are-what-you-eatbut-youre-also-how-you-translate-menu|title=You are what you eat — and how you translate the menu|date=22 September 2014 |access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref> English-speaking Québécois follow the modern French use of the term entrée to refer to a [[Entrée|dish served before the main course]].

According to linguist [[Dan Jurafsky]], North American usage ("entrée") comes from the original French meaning of the first of many meat courses.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Porzucki |first=Nina |date=22 September 2014 |title=You are what you eat—and how you translate the menu |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2014-09-22/sure-you-are-what-you-eatbut-youre-also-how-you-translate-menu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513033144/https://theworld.org/stories/2014-09-22/sure-you-are-what-you-eatbut-youre-also-how-you-translate-menu |archive-date=13 May 2023 |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=The World from PRX |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Food}}
* [[Full course dinner]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |title=The Main Course |last=Vergé |first=Roger |year=1996 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=0-297-83638-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7L2GwAACAAJ&q=main+course |access-date=May 25, 2017}}

==External links==
* [http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook Wikibooks Cookbook]

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[[Category:Food and drink terminology]]
[[Category:Courses (food)]]


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