the brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun or open air.
yellowish brown; light brown.
of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.
used in or relating to tanning processes, materials, etc.
the brown colour produced by the skin after intensive exposure to ultraviolet rays, esp those of the sun
a light or moderate yellowish-brown colour
short for tanbark
to go brown or cause to go brown after exposure to ultraviolet rays
she tans easily
to convert (a skin or hide) into leather by treating it with a tanning agent, such as vegetable tannins, chromium salts, fish oils, or formaldehyde
slang (tr) to beat or flog
of the colour tan
tan gloves
used in or relating to tanning
First recorded before 1000; 1920–25 tan 1 for def. 2; Middle English tannen “to make hide into leather,” late Old English tannian (only in past participle getanned ), from Medieval Latin tannāre, derivative of tannum “oak bark, tanbark,” from Germanic; compare Old High German tanna “oak, fir,” akin to Dutch den “fir”
By shortening
Tan is a light brown color you might also call "beige." If you want to brighten up your bedroom, you can paint your boring tan walls with green, yellow, and hot pink stripes. Some people who spend a lot of time outside in the sun end up with a tan, a darker skin tone than they usually have. The verb tan means to deliberately soak up the sun in the hopes of getting a tan. You can also use tan as a verb to describe the process of making leather from animal skins: "Then I'll tan the deer hide by soaking it in this solution."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Under-18s are already barred from using sunbeds, but teenagers can sometimes dodge the rules by using contactless payment systems that let you tap and tan without any checks by a staff member, warns the government.
From BBC • May 21, 2026
In one of Glover’s favorite pictures, snapped by his wife, he is sitting at his desk in his tan desert flight suit, focused on graduate school work while holding one of his daughters.
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2026
Sherman, wearing a tan pantsuit and dark-framed glasses, recounted what had happened the previous day.
From Slate • May 1, 2026
"I don't mean rainbow colors, but you know, dark browns or tan colors because that tells us something about the composition, and that tells us something about the history of the Moon."
From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026
There were solid black trunks and flimsy tan suitcases bound with thin rope and more laundry bags than she could count.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
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.
