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nan

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nan¹

  • /næn/ US, UK
  • /nan/ British, Northern England, Scotland
  • /nɛn/ New Zealand

Sounds like NaN · Rhymes with -æn

Where it comes from

From Nan, pet form of the formerly very common female given names Anne and Agnes. As a nursemaid and grandmother, a clipping of earlier nana, from nanny under the probable influence of mama, also from Nan. Compare Mary.

noun nans

  1. obsolete Synonym of maid: a servant girl.

    Similar: maid

  2. obsolete, slang Synonym of nancy: an effeminate male homosexual.

    Similar: nancy

  3. UK, endearing Synonym of nursemaid.

    Similar: nursemaid

  4. Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, endearing Synonym of grandmother. We had my nan over for Christmas dinner.

    Similar: grandmother

nan²

  • /næn/ UK
  • /nɑːn/ UK
  • /næn/ US
  • /nɑn/ US

Where it comes from

See at naan.

noun nans

  1. alternative Alternative spelling of naan Gerry ordered poppadoms and parathas and then he was interrupted by requests for vindaloos, chicken madrases and sag joshes, rice, raita and nan, from Priest, Morgan and Maria Grazia.

Nan³

Rhymes with -æn

noun

  1. radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter N.

    Similar: November

proper noun

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Ann and Nancy. My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies, / Finely attired in a robe of white.

Nan⁴

Rhymes with -æn

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Thai น่าน (nâan).

proper noun

  1. A province of Thailand.
  2. The capital of Nan Province, Thailand.

NaN⁵

  • /næn/

Sounds like nan · Rhymes with -æn

noun NaNs

  1. abbreviation, acronym, countable, uncountable Acronym of not a number, applied to numeric values that represent an undefined or unrepresentable value, such as zero divided by itself.

NAN⁶

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of National Assembly of Nigeria

noun

  1. NMDA antagonist neurotoxicity.
  2. alternative Alternative form of NaN (not a number)

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: nanny, granny, nana, babysitter, gran, grandma, grandmother, male, right, yueh, southern, nope, kiang, southward, southbound, tucket

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"nan." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nan. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

nan. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nan

Chicago

"nan." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nan.

BibTeX
@misc{nan_2026,
  title = {nan},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nan},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}