From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmain clauseˌmain ˈclause ●●○ noun [countable] technicalSLG a clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence → subordinate clause
Examples from the Corpus
main clause• However, when a subordinate clause follows a main clause this additional processing load does not occur.• Also, they commonly appear as subordinate elements in a sentence where the main clause indicates the speaker.• The main clause elements are subject, predicator, object, complement, and adjunct. 