Word.ws English Dictionary

arran

/ˈæɹən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ˈaɹən/

arran noun: spider.

Noun

arran (plural arrans)

  1. (Yorkshire, obsolete) spider
    • Sweep'th Arrans down, till all be clean neer lin, Els he'l leauk all Agye when he comes in […]1685, George Meriton, “A Yorkeſhire Dialogue in its pure natural Dialect”, in The praise of York-ſhire ale wherein is enumerated ſeveral ſorts of drinks, York: Francis Hildyard, page 59
    • "And th' arrand (spider)? Yes, but I hev: I 've read th' history o' Scotland, and happen knaw as mich on't as ye; and I understand ye to mean to say ye 'll persevere."1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Hollow’s Cottage”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 79

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Arran

Arran

  1. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Isle of Arran, Scotland.
  2. A male given name transferred from the place name, of modern Scottish usage.
  3. A village in Saskatchewan, Canada.
  4. Synonym of Arranmore (island in County Donegal, Ireland)
    Synonyms:
    Arranmore
  5. A male given name from Tamil.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Arran

Arran

  1. (historical) In post-Islamic times, a region of eastern Transcaucasia, lying between the Rivers Kura and Araxes, in what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan and the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, corresponding to the territory of Caucasian Albania on the right bank of the River Kura which was disattached from Greater Armenia in 387 AD. In pre-Islamic times, the term was used for the whole of Caucasian Albania.

Synonyms of arran

  • Arranmore

Forms of arran

Noun
pluralarrans
alternative formarrand
Proper noun
alternative formAran

Origin of arran

Inherited from Middle English arayne, arane, from Old French araigne, aragne, from Latin arānea, related to or derived from Ancient Greek ἀράχνη (arákhnē). Doublet of Arachne.

Derived from Scottish Gaelic Arainn, but the name is ultimately probably of non-Indo-European (substrate) or Pictish origin, along with other uncertain names in Scotland such as Skye, Lewis, and Islay. Possibly from a Brythonic/Pictish term ancestral or cognate to Middle Welsh aran (“"high place"”).

Derived from Middle Persian *ʾldʾn (/⁠arrān⁠/). Cognate with Parthian 𐭀𐭓𐭃𐭀𐭍 (ʾrdʾn /⁠ardān⁠/). Ultimately from an unknown source, underlying also Old Armenian Աղուանք (Ałuankʻ) and Ancient Greek Ἀλβανία (Albanía).

Words formed from arran

Phrases with arran

Words that rhyme with arran

Questions about arran

What does arran mean?
Arran means spider.
What part of speech is arran?
Arran can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce arran?
Arran is pronounced /ˈaɹən/ (Northern England).
What is the plural of arran?
The plural of arran is arrans.

Words near arran in the dictionary

  1. arraigns
  2. Arraiján
  3. Arram
  4. Arrambide
  5. Arrambides
  6. arran
  7. Arran brown
  8. Arran browns
  9. Arran-Elderslie
  10. arrand
  11. arrands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arran (page history and authors); Arran (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: “arran.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arran. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.