Word.ws English Dictionary

chan

/t͡ʃæn/US/tʃæn/

chan noun: an IRC channel.

Noun (1)

chan (plural chans)

  1. (Internet, informal) An IRC channel.
    • I tried, but I never get anyone in the chan! I don't know how/where to advertise... maybe we should set up a meeting time or something?1997, Dominic Donegan, “Is there a #nethack chan on IRC?”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack (Usenet)
    • If you don't have your password set within a week I'll remove you from the userlist and I'll add you again next time I see you in the chan and make sure you set a pass.1999, Jonny Durango, “IMPORTANT NEWS FOR AHM IRC CHAN!!!”, in alt.hackers.malicious (Usenet)

Noun (2)

chan (plural chans)

  1. (Internet, informal) An imageboard.
    • more niche chans

Noun (3)

chan (plural chans)

  1. (dated, slang) Fanwork depicting sexual relationships betwen an adult and a minor;
    1. (dated, slang, uncommon) or between two underage characters.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Chan

Chan (plural Chans)

  1. A Chinese surname from Cantonese.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Chan

Chan (plural Chans)

  1. A Chinese surname from Hokkien.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Chan

Chan

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Zhan, A Chinese surname from Mandarin.

Noun (4) capitalized: Chan

Chan (uncountable)

  1. A major Chinese school of Mahayana Buddhism characterized by sudden enlightenment achieved by indirect means, developed in Japan as Zen.
    • It is possible that highly calligraphic painting styles, including the extreme forms of “flung-ink,” began at this time, but probably not under Ch’an Buddhist influence, which figured in the religious life of the dynasty.[1964, Sherman E. Lee, “The Rise of the Arts of Painting and Ceramics in China”, in A History of Far Eastern Art, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 261, column 2
    Synonyms:
    Zen, Zen Buddhism

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Chan

Chan

  1. A surname from Khmer.

Proper noun (5) capitalized: Chan

Chan

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Chanambam surname of Meitei origin
  2. (alternative) Alternative form of Chandam surname of Meitei origin

chan meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

chan in Hindi

चान, चॅन

chan in Marathi

चान, चॅन

chan in Urdu

چان

chan in Bengali

চ্যান
More languagesFewer languages
chan in Telugu
చాన్, ఛాన్
chan in Malayalam
ചാൻ
chan in Kannada
ಚಾನ್
chan in Gujarati
ચાન, ચૅન
chan in Odia
ଚାନ୍, ଚାନ
chan in Nepali
चान, च्यान

Examples of chan in a sentence

  • Basically it’s a giant pity party that started on the 4chan board R9K.
  • To the 4chan boys Trump was a hero, the social failure in chief, a clown prince.
  • Pepe memes are ubiquitous across 4chan, Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr, and other social media and image-sharing sites.

All 31 example sentences with chan

Synonyms of chan

Forms of chan

Noun
pluralchans
alternative form (obsolete)Ch'an
Proper noun
pluralChans

Origin of chan

Clipping of channel.

From 4chan, a popular imageboard; ultimately from channel.

From the Japanese familiar suffix ちゃん (-chan).

Words formed from chan

Words that rhyme with chan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chan

What does chan mean?
Chan means an IRC channel.
What is chan in Hindi?
Chan in Hindi is चान, चॅन. See Chan meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is chan?
Chan can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce chan?
Chan is pronounced /t͡ʃæn/.
What is the plural of chan?
The plural of chan is chans.

Words near chan in the dictionary

  1. chamsas
  2. chamsin
  3. chamsins
  4. chamæleon
  5. chamæleons
  6. chan
  7. Chan's megastick
  8. Chan's megasticks
  9. Chan-chiang
  10. chana
  11. chana daal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chan (page history and authors); Chan (page history and authors); chan (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chan (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-chan.wav.

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