wan
adjective
of an unnatural or sickly pallor; pallid; lacking color.
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wan
1 American
[won]
/ wɒn /
adjective
-
wanner,
comparative
-
wannest
superlative
-
of an unnatural or sickly pallor; pallid; lacking color.
His wan face suddenly flushed.
- Synonyms:
- ashen
- Antonyms:
- ruddy
-
showing or suggesting ill health, fatigue, unhappiness, etc..
a wan look; a wan smile.
-
lacking in forcefulness, competence, or effectiveness.
their wan attempts to organize the alumni.
- Synonyms:
- limp, ineffectual, halfhearted, weak, feeble
-
Archaic.
-
dark or gloomy.
-
pale in color or hue.
-
verb (used with or without object)
wanned,
wanning
wan
2
American
[wahn]
/ wɑn /
verb
Obsolete.
WAN
3
American
[wan]
/ wæn /
noun
wan
1
British
/ wɒn /
adjective
-
unnaturally pale esp from sickness, grief, etc
-
characteristic or suggestive of ill health, unhappiness, etc
-
(of light, stars, etc) faint or dim
verb
WAN
2
British
abbreviation
-
wide area network
-
Nigeria (international car registration)
WAN
Scientific
/ wăn /
Synonym Usage
See pale 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of wan
before 900; Middle English; Old English wann dark, gloomy
Explanation
Someone who is wan is visibly unwell and lacking in energy. If you’ve had the flu for over a week, and you finally get out of bed looking pale and tired, your mother might say that you look wan. When your aunt comes to dinner and eats three helpings of dessert, she might seem a little wan as she drinks her tea, meaning she looks sickly and weak — and no wonder, after so many slices of pie! Wan can also describe a fading light — one that is sickly and weak, just like your aunt. When the light bulb in the living room burns out and leaves only wan twilight filtering in, you’ll find it impossible to read.
Vocabulary lists containing wan
The Call of the Wild
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Speak
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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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:
There’s some wan comedy in an early scene where these new-ish lovers debate the ethics of secrecy while revealing the skeletons they’ve been hiding from each other.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Our mother did reappear, looking wan and smiling bravely, and we had to pretend that she was fine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
If you were not eating meat in the 1990s and early 2000s, you might harbor painful memories of the wan, wet vegan dogs of yesteryear.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2024
But this show is too slight, too wan, to bear the weight of analytical dissection.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
She looked wan and her eyes were puffy.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
“It makes sure that the WAN coming in is not going to be the bottleneck. You’re able to deploy the full extent of your WAN connection off a gateway Eero.”
From The Verge ● Mar. 23, 2022
I get my internet from Xfinity cable via an Arris SB8200, which is Ethernet-connected to the WAN port on my Netgear R7900 wireless router.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2022
The New Oxford Shakespeare editions attributed “Henry VI” to a collaboration with Christopher Marlowe on the basis of WAN analysis.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2021
You will want to connect the port labeled WAN on your newly configured old router to an open Ethernet port on your current router, and you’re on your way to digital mutual aid.
From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2020
The WAN may or may not be part of the global network called the Internet.
From Email 101 by John Goodwin
But if the orchestrations, by Mr. Kitt and Michael Starobin, are atypically wan, Mr. Kitt’s lyrics are even wanner.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2019
Carl's entrances into the Coliseum may have been slightly louder, but Edwin's were appreciably wanner.
From Time Magazine Archive
When she was out in the drizzle, however, Her Majesty's smile grew wanner and wanner, and sometimes disappeared.
From Time Magazine Archive
Says one Bostonian who knows her well: "There isn't anyone wanner or dearer, when she's feeling good."
From Time Magazine Archive
A makeshift signal flag—a red knitted leg wanner of the sort worn by dancers— was knotted to the end of an alder branch by the vehicle's rear exit.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
My brother," cried Henry, with the wannest pleasure, "you have played me the most agreeable trick in the world, and have showed me the full confidence I may place in you.
From Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15) The Romance of Reality by Charles Morris
Owen's heart beat with honest pride as he stepped down from the platform and walked side by side with his giant opponent,—still his wannest friend.
From The Cave by the Beech Fork A Story of Kentucky?1815 by Henry S. Spalding
In many a laboured scene of the wannest humour and of the most affecting passion I have seen the best actors disconcerted, while these buzzing muscatos have been fluttering round their eyes and ears.
From The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield by Edward Robins
To get the two hundred pounds required to pay off the mortgage upon 'Bachelors' Hall,' Clare addressed himself first to Lord Radstock, whom he looked upon as one of his wannest and most sincere friends.
From The Life of John Clare by Frederick Martin
She was dressed in her grey uniform and sheltered under her cape the thinnest, wannest mite of humanity that ever the Club had seen outside of the streets of a city slum.
From Ethel Morton and the Christmas Ship by Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith
Not precisely royal fare, but nourishing; it tasted good enough and wanned the belly.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Mademoiselle was poking at a rusty stove that smoked a little and wanned the room indifferently.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
Around noon, when the air had wanned, Frightful gave the little eyas the last bites of the rat.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
She had never met him until to-day, and yet her heart wanned toward him more and more.
From Infelice by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans
Once the imagination is stirred and the emotions wanned by this instruction, an immediate and natural outlet in expression must be found if these lessons are to fulfill their end.
From How to Teach Religion Principles and Methods by George Herbert Betts
Stark Young takes a view of art which is wanning to those tired of abstruse and cerebral esthetics.
From Time Magazine Archive
It had a slim chance of wanning its fight.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was a French sportwriter just wanning up to the famed Tour de France, the month-long bicycle race that attracts the world's largest crowds.
From Time Magazine Archive
She sat holding it in her hand, while the music penetrated her whole being like an effulgence, wanning and brightening the dark places of her soul.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
The Proclaimers are just wanning up on that misery-to-happiness song—the follow-up to “Five Hundred Miles.”
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
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.
