Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɒn/Category:English 1-syllable words#WANCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#WAN

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#WAN
• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɑn/Category:English 1-syllable words#WANCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#WAN
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /wæn/^[2]Category:English 1-syllable words#WANCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#WAN
• Rhymes: -ɒnCategory:Rhymes:English/ɒn#WANCategory:Rhymes:English/ɒn/1 syllable#WAN
• Homophones: one (for speakers who pronounce that word as /wɒn/), won (etymologies 2 and 3)Category:English terms with homophones#WAN

Adjective

wan (comparative wanner, superlative wannest)Category:English lemmas#WANCategory:English adjectives#WANCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. Pale, sickly-looking.

   Synonyms: ashen, pasty; see also Thesaurus:pallid

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42, page 116:

     Whome when his Lady ſaw, to him ſhe ran / With haſty ioy : to ſee him made her glad, / And ſad to view his viſage pale and wan, / Who earſt in flowres of freſhest youth was clad.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Beleaguered City”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanzas 1–2, page 22:

     I have read in some old marvellous tale, / Some legend strange and vague, / That a midnight host of spectres pale / Beleaguered the walls of Prague. // Beside the Moldau’s rushing stream, / With the wan moon overhead, / There stood, as in an awful dream, / The army of the dead.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Blanche smiled languidly out upon the young men, thinking whether she looked very wan and green under her rose-coloured hood, and whether it was the mirrors at Gaunt House, or the fatigue and fever of her own eyes, which made her fancy herself so pale.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 1892, Joaquin Miller, Columbus:

     BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’”
     “My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak.” / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. // “What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, / If we sight naught but seas at dawn?” / “Why, you shall say at break of day, / ‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’”
     They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, / Until at last the blanched mate said: / “Why, now not even God would know / Should I and all my men fall dead. // These very winds forget their way, / For God from these dread seas is gone. / Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say”— / He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
     They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: / “This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. / He curls his lip, he lies in wait, / With lifted teeth, as if to bite! // Brave Admiral, say but one good word: / What shall we do when hope is gone?” / The words leapt like a leaping sword: / “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
     Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, / And peered through darkness. Ah, that night / Of all dark nights! And then a speck— / A light! A light! A light! A light! // It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! / It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. / He gained a world; he gave that world / Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN
   • 1921 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Efficiency Expert”, in All-Story Weekly, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “The Trial”, in The Efficiency Expert, [Auckland]: The Floating Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 188:

     She looked wan and worried, and then finally she was not in court one day, and later [...] he learned that she was confined to her room with a bad cold.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 24:

     Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 2020, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, page 45:

     Instead, you wiped off the red lipstick with wadded-up toilet paper and forced a smile, leaving the locker room with a pale, cotton candy-colored lipstick that made you look wan and parched instead.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

2. Dim, faint.

   Synonyms: dull, dun, leaden, uncolorful; see also Thesaurus:dim

   Antonyms: colorful, colorific, coloury; see also Thesaurus:multicolored

   • 1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Ballad of One-eyed Mike”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 52:

     ’Twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan, and I willed it even so.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

3. Bland, uninterested.

   Synonyms: insipid, lackluster; see also Thesaurus:boring

   A wan expressionCategory:English terms with usage examples#WAN

   • 1867 July 13, “Lieutenant Castagnac”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume IV, number 80, Cambridge, Mass.: Printed at the University Press, Cambridge, by Welch, Bigelow, & Co., for Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, chapter II, page 35:

     My position in the midst of the general indifference was hard to bear ; my silence weighed upon me like remorse. The sight of Lieutenant Castagnac filled me with indignation, — a sort of insurmountable repulsion: the wan look, the ironical smile of the man, froze my blood.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 2013, Carter Dreyfuss, chapter 1, in The Prince of Temple Square: A Murder Mystery, Tucson, Ariz.: Wheatmark, →ISBN, pages 8–9:

     Checking out her brother’s khakis, the gun propped in the corner, Olivia’s hiking boots and her wan expression, she wants to laugh. “Been hunting, I see.” Olivia’s face falls, as expected. Her brother’s obsession with guns and gross little expeditions appall her.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 2014, Chris Angus, chapter 12, in Flypaper: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Yucca Publishing, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:

     “I have to admit, I’ve been tempted a time or two to chuck everything to go live in a place like this [Bogda Peak, China],” he replied. / “What stopped you?” / He gave her a wan look. “Celibacy.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

Noun

wan (uncountable)Category:English lemmas#WANCategory:English nouns#WANCategory:English uncountable nouns#WANCategory:English uncountable nouns#WANCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. The quality of being wan; wanness.

   Synonyms: achromatism, decolouration, paleness, pallidity, pallor

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 47:

     And while we stood beside the fount, and watch’d / Or seem’d to watch the dancing bubble, approach'd / Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep, / Or sorrow, and glowing round her dewy eyes / The circled Iris of a night of tears ; [...]

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

Noun

wan (plural wans)Category:English lemmas#WANCategory:English nouns#WANCategory:English countable nouns#WANCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. Pronunciation spelling of oneCategory:English pronunciation spellings#WAN, representing IrelandCategory:Irish English#WAN and Glasgow English.
2. (IrelandCategory:Irish English#WAN) A girl or woman.

   Synonyms: lass, maid; see also Thesaurus:girl, Thesaurus:woman

   • 1993, Elaine Crowley, The Ways Of Women, London: Orion, →ISBN:

     Then I’d tell myself there were plenty of oul wans and oul fellas in work who never got it and that I’d be lucky like them and escape. Only I didn’t. I don’t want to die.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 2005, David McWilliams, The Pope’s Children: Ireland’s New Elite, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, →ISBN; republished as The Pope’s Children: The Irish Economic Triumph and the Rise of Ireland’s New Elite, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2008, →ISBN, page 4:

     Growing up in Dún Laoghaire in the 1980s, I remember all the hard men were sinewy, scrawny lads, hence the local description ‘more meat on a seagull’. The reason was simple: they were undernourished. [...] The young wans, despite a couple of babies, were more or less the same, pinched, flat-chested and drawn.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

   • 2015, Kevin Maher, “A Yuletide Bender”, in Last Night on Earth, London: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:

     He comes streaming out from under the stage, this time a feckin show-stopper, almost literally, because there’s eighty different acrobats above him, [...] for this mad New Year’s show that has no story at all, other than this wan in silky robes who goes out with this fella in silky robes, and they’re from different enemy tribes of lads and wans in silky robes, and when they find out, they have this huge, aerial, acrobatic donnybrook that ends when everyone wraps their silk around each other up in the air, and then lets it all fall down to the ground, where the audience are, to show them how we're all part of one big silky family, and not to be fighting in the future.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WAN

Verb

wanCategory:English non-lemma forms#WANCategory:English verb forms#WANCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#WAN) simple past of win.

Synonyms

• sa
• rongsa
• eek

Noun

wan f or m (plural wannen, diminutive wannetje n)Category:Dutch lemmas#WANCategory:Dutch nouns#WANCategory:Dutch nouns with f+m gender#WANCategory:Dutch nouns with plural in -en#WANCategory:Dutch nouns with red links in their headword lines#WANCategory:Dutch entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Dutch feminine nouns#WANCategory:Dutch masculine nouns#WANCategory:Dutch nouns with multiple genders#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. winnowing basket

Verb

wanCategory:Dutch non-lemma forms#WANCategory:Dutch verb forms#WANCategory:Dutch entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. inflection of wannen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Numeral

wanCategory:Jamaican Creole lemmas#WANCategory:Jamaican Creole numerals#WANCategory:Jamaican Creole entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. one
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 2:5:

     Kaaz a onggl wan Gad de bout, an Jiizas Krais a di migl man, di onggl wan we kyan bring Gad an piipl tugeda.

     For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

     Category:Jamaican Creole terms with quotations#WAN

Article

wanCategory:Jamaican Creole lemmas#WANCategory:Jamaican Creole articles#WANCategory:Jamaican Creole entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. a, an (indefinite article)
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 4:9:

     So nou, di Samaritan uman se tu Jiizas se, “Yu a wan Juu an mi a wan Samaritan uman. […]

     he Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? […]

     Category:Jamaican Creole terms with quotations#WAN

Further reading

• wan at majstro.com

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan˧˩/Category:Jingpho terms with IPA pronunciation#WAN

Noun

wanCategory:Jingpho lemmas#WANCategory:Jingpho nouns#WANCategory:Jingpho entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. fire
2. lamp; light; lantern

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan˧˧/Category:Jingpho terms with IPA pronunciation#WAN

Noun

wanCategory:Jingpho lemmas#WANCategory:Jingpho nouns#WANCategory:Jingpho entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. bowl

Classifier

wanCategory:Jingpho lemmas#WANCategory:Jingpho nouns#WANCategory:Jingpho entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. Classifier for the quantity of a bowl: bowlful

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Adjective

wanCategory:Middle English lemmas#WANCategory:Middle English adjectives#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. wan (pallid, sickly)
2. wan (dim, faint)

References

• “wan, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Noun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wane (“deprivation”)

Adjective

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wane

Noun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. (NorthernCategory:Northern Middle English#WAN) alternative form of vein (“that which is vain”)

Pronoun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of whan

Noun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. (NorthernCategory:Northern Middle English#WAN, Early Middle EnglishCategory:Early Middle English#WAN) alternative form of wone (“dwelling”)

Noun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wane (“woeful state”)

Noun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wone (“choice”)

Noun

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wayn (“wagon”)

Verb

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wanen

Adverb

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of whenne

Conjunction

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of whenne

Adverb

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of whanne

Conjunction

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of whanne

Verb

wanCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WANCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. alternative form of wanne: singular simple past of winnen
2. alternative form of wonnen: plural simple past of winnenCategory:Middle English plural past forms#WAN

Conjugation

Inflection

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: wâen
  • Dutch: waan
    • Afrikaans: waan
  • Limburgish: waan

Alternative forms

• *hwan
• *on

Derived terms

Declension

Number

wanCategory:Sranan Tongo lemmas#WANCategory:Sranan Tongo numerals#WANCategory:Sranan Tongo entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. Category:Sranan Tongo cardinal numbers#WANone
   • 1968, R. Dobru, “wan [One]”, in Shrinivási, editor, Wortoe d'e tan abra. Bloemlezing uit de Surinaamse poëzie vanaf 1957 [Words that remain. Anthology of Surinamese poetry since 1957]‎, Paramaribo: Bureau Volkslektuur, published 1970, page 48:

     Wan Sranan / someni wiwiri / someni skin / someni tongo / Wan pipel.

     One Suriname / so many hair [types] / so many skin [colours] / so many tongues / One people.

     Category:Sranan Tongo terms with quotations#WAN

Article

wanCategory:Sranan Tongo lemmas#WANCategory:Sranan Tongo articles#WANCategory:Sranan Tongo entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. Placed before a singular noun, indicating a general case of a person or thing: a, an
   • c. 1970, Michaël Slory, “Dungru worku broko a faja gi mi: wan fresko mamanten”, in Fri-kontren-sma‎, page 9:

     Mi o gwe go suku wan tra sortu libi now.

     I'll go away now, to look for a different kind of life.

     Category:Sranan Tongo terms with quotations#WAN

Descendants

• Saramaccan: wã́

Verb

wanCategory:Sranan Tongo lemmas#WANCategory:Sranan Tongo verbs#WANCategory:Sranan Tongo entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. contraction of waniCategory:Sranan Tongo contractions#WAN

Coordinate terms

Verb

wanCategory:Wutunhua lemmas#WANCategory:Wutunhua verbs#WANCategory:Wutunhua entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. to play

Noun

wanCategory:Wutunhua lemmas#WANCategory:Wutunhua nouns#WANCategory:Wutunhua entries with incorrect language header#WANCategory:Pages with entries#WANCategory:Pages with 28 entries#WAN

1. bowl

   ngu wan da-pe-lio.

   I broke a bowl.

   (Quoted in Sandman, p. 93)

   Category:Wutunhua terms with usage examples#WAN