suntan
Americannoun
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suntans
plural
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a browning or a brown color of the skin resulting from exposure to sunlight or a sunlamp; tan.
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Also called mayfair tan, merida. a light to medium yellow-brown.
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Also called pastel orange. a medium orange color.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of suntan
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She says the current trend to create tan lines by burning in the sun, coupled with false claims that suntan lotion is responsible for the very cancer it's trying to prevent is a "perfect storm".
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2025
Edgewell Personal Care Co., the maker of Schick blazers and Banana Boat suntan lotion, has trimmed certain varieties of its anti-bacteria wipes Wet Ones, among others.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
Sophie would rather apply suntan lotion to her own back.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2023
You can smell the coconut suntan lotion and hear Duran Duran playing in the background.
From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2021
He took out a tube of suntan lotion, squeezed a bit onto his hand, and passed the tube on.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
But the return of pleasant weather this year could bring more than suntans as the deluges provided fertile ground for mosquitoes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2023
The people who lived here before me danced in Bourbon Street clubs; the balcony was for suntans.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 12, 2019
Many officials spent their time in a secure room reading signals-intelligence reports or working on their suntans by the pool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2016
The door swung open and there stood two girls, centre-parted blonde hair, fading suntans, sandals and painted toenails, bare arms, sweet expectant smiles, unbearably pretty.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 10, 2012
He was wearing a blue shirt and suntans and white socks and black shoes.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
“It wasn’t that I was in the French Riviera getting suntanned with Keith Richards.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
NOV 2008: Berlusconi hails Barack Obama as "handsome, young and also suntanned", after he was elected the United States' first Black president.
From Reuters ● Jun. 12, 2023
We’ve stopped telling them that we always go to our garden in Brandenburg at the weekend, but they can tell anyway – by our suntanned holiday faces.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 5, 2020
He is fifty-nine and has a loose-legged stroll, tousled salt-and-pepper hair, and sunken, suntanned cheeks.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 13, 2018
His suntanned face creased with his big smile of wonder.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
At this time of year, a person can go ice fishing and recline, shirtless, by the hole, suntanning from reflecting light.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 18, 2019
But what about addiction to suntanning, bodybuilding, fortune telling, or love?
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2015
How else to explain such an affinity for one-hour photo developing, instant replay, touch- tone phones and suntanning parlors?
From Time Magazine Archive
"I'm an evangelist against this foolish suntanning habit," says U.C.L.A.
From Time Magazine Archive
The students spent the entire hour speaking in French about suntanning.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
