Word.ws English Dictionary

dan

/dæn/

dan noun: a title of honour or respect similar to "master" or "Sir", used of historical and legendary figures of the past. Also the pronunciation spelling of than.

Noun (1)

dan

  1. (obsolete) A title of honour or respect similar to "master" or "Sir", used of historical and legendary figures of the past.
    • Dan Phoebus, he with many a low'ring look / Had her beheld in yore in angry wise.1578, George Gascoigne, “A Moonshine Banquet”, in A Hundred Sundry Flowers
    • Old Dan Geoffrey, in whose gentle spright / The pure well-head of Poesy did dwell.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Noun (2)

dan (plural dans)

  1. A small truck or sledge used in coal mines.

Noun (3)

dan (plural dans)

  1. A rank of black belt in martial arts.
  2. Someone who has achieved a level of black belt.

Noun (4)

IPA/dɑn/

dan (plural dans or dan)

  1. (units of measurement) Synonym of picul: a traditional unit of weight and mass, chiefly used as a dry measure of grains.
    Synonyms:
    picul
  2. (units of measurement) A traditional unit of equivalent volume, now officially equal to 100 liters.

Noun (5)

dan (plural dans)

  1. A dan buoy.
    • Carrying away of 25 great-lines, 3 dans, buoys, &c., of steam liner 'Star of the East'[…]1913, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers: 1909-1982, page 165
    • Dumping dans. Dan buoys laid to mark a dumping ground. They are fitted with a topmark in the shape of a St. Andrews cross formed by battens 2 feet in length. Live dan. Dan buoy for which a[…]1917, United States. Office of Naval Intelligence, O.N.I. Publications, page 17

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Dan

Dan (plural Dans)

  1. A male given name from Hebrew.
    • A widely shared local television video of last week's news conference, which was posted on YouTube, reached more than 5 million views and was amplified by Elon Musk and Fox News, where Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi appeared on primetime shows two nights in a row.2020 April 29, Anna-Maja Rappard, “Dubious coronavirus claims by California doctors condemned by health experts”, in CNN, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2020
  2. A diminutive of the male given name Daniel.
    • In Welland, a blue-collar burg between Buffalo and Toronto, [Daniel] Paille’s and [Dan] Girardi’s friends, relatives and fans will tune in to the latest installment of what some have labeled the Battle of Welland or the Battle of the Dans.2013 May 22, Matt Higgins, “A Bruin and a Ranger Share a Bond While Dividing a City”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2024
  3. A diminutive of the female given name Danielle.
    • […] the director of Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon replaces the characters' intellectual and verbal energy with "transparent rationalizations for the personal hang-ups of the characters […]1988, Richard H. Palmer, The Critics' Canon: Standards of Theatrical Reviewing in America
  4. A surname.
  5. The fifth son of Jacob and Bilhah (who was Rachel's handmaid).
  6. One of the Israelite tribes, descended from Dan.
  7. A former city occupied by this tribe.

Noun (6) capitalized: Dan

Dan (plural Dans)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of dan (title of honour).

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Dan

Dan

  1. A Mande ethnic group from northwestern Ivory Coast and neighboring Liberia.
  2. The language of this people, belonging to the Southern Mande branch.

Noun (7) capitalized: DAN

DAN (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of deadenylating nuclease, a protein that binds the 5' cap of mRNA and begins degradation in the 3' to 5' direction.
  2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons, a scientific instrument of the Mars Science Laboratory onboard the Curiosity rover at Mars.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: DAN

DAN

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Divers Alert Network.

Also used as

dan is also the pronunciation spelling of than.

dan meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu

dan in Hindi

डैन

dan in Marathi

डॅन

dan in Bengali

ড্যান

dan in Telugu

డ్యాన్
More languagesFewer languages
dan in Malayalam
ഡാൻ, ദാൻ
dan in Kannada
ಡ್ಯಾನ್
dan in Punjabi
ਡੈਨ
dan in Gujarati
ડેન
dan in Odia
ଡାନ୍, ଡ୍ଯ଼ାନ୍
dan in Nepali
ड्यान

Examples of dan in a sentence

  • This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, dan Cupid.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  • The patriarchal age, / What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land.1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
  • He did—and in a moment press'd / The place—in Paradise the best, / As by Dan Moses said.1777, James Perry, The Electrical Eel; or, Gymnotus Electricus:
  • Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath / Preluded those melodious bursts, that fill / The spacious times of great Elizabeth / With sounds that echo still.1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, A Dream of Fair Women:

All 33 example sentences with dan

Synonyms of dan

Forms of dan

Noun
alternative formDan
pluraldans
pluraldan
pluralDans
Proper noun
pluralDans

Plural of dan: dans

Origin of dan

From Middle English dan, daun, dam (“lord”), from Anglo-Norman daun, daunz and Old French dan, dam, from Latin dominus. Doublet of don.

Uncertain.

From Japanese 段 (dan).

Words formed from dan

Phrases with dan

Words that rhyme with dan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dan

What does dan mean?
Dan means a title of honour or respect similar to "master" or "Sir", used of historical and legendary figures of the past.
What is dan in Hindi?
Dan in Hindi is डैन. See Dan meaning in Hindi.
How do you use dan in a sentence?
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, dan Cupid.
What part of speech is dan?
Dan can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dan?
Dan is pronounced /dæn/.
What is the plural of dan?
The plural of dan is dans.

Words near dan in the dictionary

  1. Damulog
  2. Damus
  3. Damxung
  4. damyankee
  5. damyankees
  6. dan
  7. dan bau
  8. dan buoy
  9. dan buoys
  10. dan dan noodles
  11. dan day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dan (page history and authors); Dan (page history and authors); DAN (page history and authors); dan (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dan (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: en-us-dan.ogg.

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