Honan

American  

[hoh-nan, hœ-nahn] / ˈhoʊˈnæn, ˈhœˈnɑn /

noun

1. Wade-Giles. Henan.

2. (usually lowercase)

   1. a pongee fabric made from the filaments of the wild silkworm.

   2. a lustrous fabric simulating pongee and woven from fibers other than silk.

---

Honan ¹ British  

/ ˈhəʊˈnæn /

noun

1. a variant transliteration of the Chinese name for Henan

---

honan ² British  

/ ˈhəʊˈnæn /

noun

1. (sometimes capital) a silk fabric of rough weave

---

Etymology

Origin of Honan

First recorded in 1880–85; named after Honan, where the fabric was first manufactued

Example Sentences

Honan immediately reported the incident, calling the campaign office and the Department of Investigation.

From Salon • Aug. 23, 2025

“Glass, and the other things like it, won’t always be ugly and awkward,” Mat Honan wrote in Wired in 2013, in a retrospective of a year of wearing the device.

From Slate • Sep. 26, 2024

Democratic polling and strategy group Honan Strategy Group is meanwhile trying to develop an AI survey bot.

From Reuters • May 30, 2023

David Honan, chief of the campus police department, declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this article.

From New York Times • Mar. 13, 2021

The author has seen in the Temple of Honan, at Canton, China, a pen of "sacred" hogs!

From The Story of Malta by Ballou, Maturin Murray