glowny

Glowny, when written as główny in Polish, is an adjective meaning main, principal, chief, or central. It is gendered: masculine główny, feminine główna, neuter główne. It is widely used to describe the most important element of a set or system, for example: główna część (main part), główna rola (lead role), główna siedziba (headquarters), or główne źródło (main source). The term appears in contexts such as geography, administration, computing, and culture to distinguish the primary item from secondary ones.

In ordinary writing, the correct spelling uses diacritics: główny / główna / główne. The ASCII form glowny appears in older texts, in technical identifiers, or in systems that do not support diacritics; it represents the same word but without ł and ń.

Notable uses include proper nouns in Poland where the word indicates central status, such as Główny Urząd Statystyczny, the national statistics office. The term also features in other organizational titles to denote central or main offices. In linguistic and comparative terms, główny has cognates in other Slavic languages, for example Russian Главный (glavny), sharing the same meaning of “main” or “chief.”