Word.ws English Dictionary

-an

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ən/

-an suffix: of or pertaining to; an adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. (Often added to words of Latin origin, but also used with words of other origins. When a word ends in a, -n is used instead.).

Suffix

-an (adjective-forming suffix, comparative more -an, superlative most -an)

  1. Of or pertaining to; an adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. (Often added to words of Latin origin, but also used with words of other origins. When a word ends in a, -n is used instead.)
    • Rome + -an → Roman
    Synonyms:
    -al, -ar, -ese, -esque, -ic, -id, -ish, -like, -oid, -ous
  2. One from, belonging to, relating to, or like.
  3. Appended to nouns to form an occupation. (When males with a profession are distinguished from females, males are -an, females -(i)enne.)
    • comedy + -an → comedian
    • history + -an → historian

-an meaning in Arabic

-an in Arabic

of or pertaining to
ـِيّ -iyy

Synonyms of -an

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of -an

comparativemore -an
superlativemost -an
plural-ans
alternative form-ian
alternative form-n

Origin of -an

From Middle English -an, regularly -ain, -ein, -en, from Old French -ain, -ein, or before i, -en (modern French -ain, -en, feminine -aine, -enne), from Latin -ānus (feminine -āna), which forms adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun, being -nus [cognate with Ancient Greek -νος (-nos)] preceded by a vowel, from Proto-Indo-European *-nós. Cognate with English -en. Compare with -in, -ine.

Questions about -an

What does -an mean?
-an means of or pertaining to; an adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. (Often added to words of Latin origin, but also used with words of other origins. When a word ends in a, -n is used instead.).
What is -an in Arabic?
-an in Arabic is ـِيّ (-iyy). See -an meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is -an?
-an is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -an?
-an is pronounced /ən/ (British).

Words near -an in the dictionary

  1. -amide
  2. -amidine
  3. -amine
  4. -amivir
  5. -amundo
  6. -an
  7. -ana
  8. -ance
  9. -ances
  10. -ancy
  11. -and

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -an (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “-an.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-an. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.