Word.ws English Dictionary

alan

/ˈæl.ən/

alan is the alternative form of alaunt.

Meaning of alaunt

Noun

alaunt (plural alaunts)

  1. A domesticated dog of an extinct breed related to the modern bulldog and mastiff, or modern breeds created in imitation of it.
    • Les alans gentilz si doivent estre fez et taillez droitement comme un levrier de toutes choses fors de la teste, qui doit estre grosse et courte.1916, Albert Stanburrough Cook, “Appendix B: Chaucer's Alaunts”, in The Last Months of Chaucer's Earliest Patron, translation of Déduits de la Chasse des Bestes Sauvaiges et des Oiseaulx de Proye by...

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Alan

Alan (plural Alans)

  1. A male given name from the Celtic languages.
    • He grabbed at Alan by his Adam's apple,
      And Alan grabbed him back in furious grapple
      And clenched his fist and bashed him on the nose.1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Reeve's Tale”, in Nevill Coghill, transl., The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977
    • I could pose as an artist all right; so I took the studio. Also the name of Alan Beverley. My own is Bill Bates. I had often wondered what it would feel like to be called by some name like Alan Beverley or Cyril Trevelyan.1910, P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs, and Other Stories, BiblioBazaar, LLC, published 2008, →ISBN, page 24
  2. A surname.

Noun (1) capitalized: Alan

Alan (plural Alans or Alani)

  1. (historical) A member of a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Alan

Alan (plural Alans)

  1. A male given name from Hebrew, variant of Elon.

Noun (2) capitalized: ALAN

ALAN (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of artificial light at night.
    • Skyglow is a form of artificial light at night (ALAN) whereby the atmosphere scatters light back to Earth, creating a glowing dome of diffused light that can extend hundreds of kilometres into the sea.2021 March 16, Mattias Green, Yueng-Djern Lenn, 30-Second Oceans: 50 Key Ideas about the Sea's Importance to Life on Earth, 30 Second, →ISBN

Forms of alan

Noun
pluralalans
pluralAlans
pluralAlani
Proper noun
pluralAlans
alternative formAllan
alternative formAllen
alternative formAlen

Origin of alan

From Old Breton Alan, name of early Breton saints, of disputed origin and meaning; brought to England by Normans. It may have been the name of a Celtic deity, the brother of Bran, Welsh Alawn, Alun. As an early Irish name, perhaps connected with ail (“noble”). Compare French Alain.

From Latin Alānī, from Ancient Greek Ἀλανοί (Alanoí), from Proto-Sarmatian *Āllān.

Words formed from alan

Phrases with alan

Words that rhyme with alan

Questions about alan

What does alan mean?
Alan means a male given name from the Celtic languages.
What is alan the alternative form of?
Alan is the alternative form of alaunt.
What part of speech is alan?
Alan can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce alan?
Alan is pronounced /ˈæl.ən/.

Words near alan in the dictionary

  1. alampia
  2. alampy
  3. Alams
  4. alamsoa
  5. Alamut
  6. alan
  7. Alan Smithee
  8. Alan Whicker
  9. Alan Whickers
  10. Alana
  11. Alanah

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alan (page history and authors); Alan (page history and authors); ALAN (page history and authors); alaunt (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-alan.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Alan.wav.

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