Wan Definition

wŏn
wanned, wanner, wannest, wans
adjective
wanner, wannest
Sickly pale; pallid.
A wan complexion.
Webster's New World
Faint or weak in a way suggestive of sickness or great weariness, sadness, etc.
A wan smile.
Webster's New World
Pale, dim, faint, etc.
A wan light.
Webster's New World
A wan expression.
Wiktionary
Antonyms:
verb
wanned, wans
To become pale.
American Heritage
Webster's New World
To make or become sickly pale.
Webster's New World

(obsolete) Simple past tense and past participle of win.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
noun

Wide area network: a computer network of geographically distant computers, terminals, etc.

Webster's New World

The quality of being wan; wanness.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
prefix

(no longer productive except in Scotland) Preceding nouns and adjectives with the sense ‘bad, un-’

Examples: wanhope, wanrest.
Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Wan

Noun

Singular:
wan
Plural:
wans

Adjective

Base Form:
wan
Comparative:
wanner
Superlative:
wannest

Origin of Wan

  • From Middle English wan-, from Old English wan- (prefix expressing privation or negation), from Proto-Germanic *wanaz (“lacking, missing, deficient”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)wAn-, *wān- (“empty”). Cognate with Dutch wan-, German Wahn-, Danish, Swedish and Icelandic van-, Gothic (wans, “lacking, deficient”). More at want.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English, from Old English Æ¿ann (“dark, dusky"), from Proto-Germanic *wannaz (“dark, swart"), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Frisian wann, wonn (“dark").

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English pale, gloomy from Old English wann gloomy, dark

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • w(ide) a(rea) n(etwork)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Inflected forms.

    From Wiktionary

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