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• Ian
  Ian

  noun

  a male given name, Scottish form of John.
• -ian
  -ian

  a suffix with the same meaning and properties as -an, though -ian is now the more productive of the two suffixes in recent coinages, especially when the base noun ends in a consonant: Orwellian; Washingtonian .

Ian

¹ American  

[ee-uhn, ee-ahn, ahy-uhn] / ˈi ən, ˈi ɑn, ˈaɪ ən /

noun

1. a male given name, Scottish form of John.

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-ian ² American  

1. a suffix with the same meaning and properties as -an, though -ian is now the more productive of the two suffixes in recent coinages, especially when the base noun ends in a consonant: Orwellian; Washingtonian .

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-ian British  

suffix

1. a variant of -an

   Etonian

   Johnsonian

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Etymology

Origin of -ian

Extracted from Latin loanwords in which -ānus (adjective suffix) is joined to stems ending in i; see -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Ian -ian

His former Arsenal team-mate Ian Wright said: "It was structure over individuality. I am just shocked it has happened that easily."

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

“In theory, it should work,” says Ian Cohen, head of solar and space physics at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who isn’t affiliated with the research.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Nor does Michael Ian Black, who turns up as a guy selling star maps to tourists, succeed in creating something with his opportunity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

The first iteration of “The Remix” took place at Soho House in Los Angeles, which combined music and stand-up comedy by veteran comics like Carmen Morales, Francisco Ramos and Ian Edwards.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

He would have given anything to spend a few minutes alone in Ian Rider’s office.

From "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz

The adjectivally ennobled: the ones whose names sprout "-esque" and "-ian".

From The Guardian ● Jan. 15, 2013

Note.—These verbs have no trace of original umlaut, since their -ian was once -ōjan.

From Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book with Inflections, Syntax, Selections for Reading, and Glossary by Smith, C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso)

Distinction is to be made, therefore, only between Classes II and I. Class II contains the verbs with infinitive in -ian not preceded by r.

From Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book with Inflections, Syntax, Selections for Reading, and Glossary by Smith, C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso)

This termination is chiefly used in forming substantives from verbs of the first class in -ian; as h�lgung = consecration, from h�lgian = to consecrate.

From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)