Word.ws English Dictionary

fanlation

fanlation noun: translation by fans.

Noun

fanlation (countable and uncountable, plural fanlations)

  1. (slang, uncountable) Translation by fans.
    • I liked his catch of the clever combination of "fan" and "Android" to describe staunch defenders of the Google operating system for smart phones. I especially liked it because I had just suggested that we use a new term for the kind of crowdsourced translation that the likes of Twitter and Facebook...2010 January 15, Robert Ewing Finnegan, “ENC: The 157th Tool Kit - Standard Edition”, in Google Groups (TRADNORTE), archived from the original on 06 Aug 2023
    • 519. Thinking Fanlation / 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., Michigan B, Sheraton Chicago / Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Translation and the Division on East Asian Languages and Literatures after 1900.2013 November, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, volume 128, number 5, →ISSN, page 1200, column 2
  2. (countable, slang) A translation made by a fan or fans.
    • Some publishers have expurgated manga for the American market. But they run the risk of outraging fans, many of whom buy the books in the original Japanese and find fan translations online (known as “fanlations”) to make sure they’re getting their manga pure.[2005 September 18, Sarah Glazer, “Manga for Girls”, in The New York Times Book Review, page 17, column 1
    • And I've heard that once they finish the "Read or Die" manga they'll start "Read or Dream" so we'll get the Paper Sisters story too (I have some fanlations of the first volume; it's kinda cute).2006 June 6, sp...@deathquaker.org, “Happy B-day to the Best, Broody, Blue-eyed, Bishounen Bad Boy”, in alt.fan.utena (Usenet)

Examples of fanlation in a sentence

  • Though this may be not as clever as fandroids, it might still serve a very noble purpose: to separate professional translation from the eager-beaver fanlation efforts of passionate users.2010 January 15, Robert Ewing Finnegan, “ENC: The 157th Tool Kit - Standard Edition”, in Google Groups (TRADNORTE), archived from the...
  • Fanlation is influencing the way translation studies moves towards.2015, 廖佳慧(Chia-Hui Liao), “Fanlation in the Digital Age”, in SPECTRUM: NCUE Studies in Language, Literature, Translation, →DOI, pages 39–62:
  • Fan translation or “fanlation” started in the 1990s on the Internet.2023, Jieun Kiaer, Ben Cagan, “[Fan Translation] What Is Fan Translation?”, in Pragmatics in Korean and Japanese Translation (Routledge...
  • There have been at least a couple of fanlations, one of which was available online until a couple of months ago, taken down at the request of the Tezuka company.2006 August 8, KimbaWLion, “10 years behind.”, in alt.fan.furry (Usenet):

Forms of fanlation

pluralfanlations
alternative formfanslation

Origin of fanlation

Blend of fan + translation.

Questions about fanlation

What does fanlation mean?
Fanlation means translation by fans.
How do you use fanlation in a sentence?
Though this may be not as clever as fandroids, it might still serve a very noble purpose: to separate professional translation from the eager-beaver fanlation efforts of passionate users.
What part of speech is fanlation?
Fanlation is a noun.
What is the plural of fanlation?
The plural of fanlation is fanlations.

Words near fanlation in the dictionary

  1. fankle
  2. fankled
  3. fankles
  4. fankling
  5. fanks
  6. fanlation
  7. fanlations
  8. fanleaf
  9. fanless
  10. fanlight
  11. fanlighted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanlation (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:

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