Word.ws English Dictionary

Canaan

/ˈkeɪnən/

Canaan proper noun: a historic region of the Middle East, roughly equivalent to Palestine/Israel.

Proper noun

Canaan

  1. A historic region of the Middle East, roughly equivalent to Palestine/Israel.
    • Ancient combs were made from wood, bone and ivory, but the latter would have been expensive, imported luxuries. There were no elephants in Canaan at the time.2022 November 9, Ian Sample, “Oldest known sentence written in first alphabet discovered – on a head-lice comb”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Aug 2024
  2. A grandson of Noah.
    • And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 10:15-18
  3. (rare) A male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.
  4. A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States.
  5. A town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States.
  6. A number of townships in the United States, listed under Canaan Township.

Canaan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

Canaan in Hindi

historic region
कनान kanān

Canaan in Tamil

historic region
கானான் kāṉāṉ

Canaan in Urdu

historic region
کَنْعان kanʻān

Canaan in Bengali

historic region
কেনান kenan
grandson of Noah
কেনান kenan
More languagesFewer languages
Canaan in Telugu
కనాను kanānu
Canaan in Punjabi
ਕਨਾਨ kanān
Canaan in Arabic
كَنْعَان kanʕān
Canaan in Malay
Kanaan
Canaan in Persian
کنعان kan'ân
Canaan in Thai
คานาอัน kaa-naa-an
Canaan in Vietnamese
Ca-na-an

Forms of Canaan

alternative formChanaan
alternative formCaanan

Origin of Canaan

Taken (at least as early as Wycliffe's Bible, 1382-1395, which has Chanaan) from Ecclesiastical Latin Chanaān, from Ancient Greek Χαναάν (Khanaán), expanded from Χνᾶ (Khnâ), from Biblical Hebrew כְּנַעַן (kanáʕan). The first vowel shifted from /aː/ to /eɪ/ in the Great Vowel Shift; at least as early as Milton (1660s), the word could already be pronounced with two syllables, though at least as late as the 1880s it could also be pronounced with three, /ˈkeɪ.nə.æn/.

Words formed from Canaan

Phrases with Canaan

Words that rhyme with Canaan

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Canaan

What does Canaan mean?
Canaan means a historic region of the Middle East, roughly equivalent to Palestine/Israel.
What is Canaan in Hindi?
Canaan in Hindi is कनान (kanān). See Canaan meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Canaan?
Canaan is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Canaan?
Canaan is pronounced /ˈkeɪnən/.

Words near Canaan in the dictionary

  1. can-opener
  2. can-openers
  3. Can-untog
  4. Can.
  5. Cana
  6. Canaan
  7. Canaan Dog
  8. Canaan Dogs
  9. Canaanean
  10. Canaaneans
  11. Canaanic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Canaan (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)-Vealhurl-Canaan.wav.

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