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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

Ian decided to to live and to be a light and to be around people for the glory of the theater.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

Our colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick wrote an excellent breakdown of the result this week.

From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026

A letter, signed by 26 of Plaid Cymru's 28 backbench Senedd members, was sent to the chairman of the NWJCC, Ian Green, on Monday, expressing "profound disappointment" with the decision.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

BP said its interim chairman, Ian Tyler, would take on the role permanently.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

He writes his name on the whiteboard on the wall: Ian Addington.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper

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 C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso) Smith

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 C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso) Smith