Word.ws English Dictionary

fanon

/ˈfænən/

fanon noun: a vestment reserved only for the Pope for use during a pontifical Mass.

fanon: a vestment reserved only for the Pope for use during a pontifical Mass
Image: Pufui Pc Pifpef I, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

fanon (plural fanons)

  1. A vestment reserved only for the Pope for use during a pontifical Mass.
  2. Part of a bishop's mitre. They are the tabs extending down from the mitre, often with a cross near the end of each. See lappet.
  3. A maniple.
  4. A fold of linen laid under a splint.

Noun (2)

fanon (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Elements introduced by fans which are not in the official canon of a fictional world but are widely believed to be or treated as if canonical.
    • In this way, smaller groups within a fandom agree on readings which may be completely at odds with the canon, but which in time acquire legitimacy as fanon.2014, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, page 53
    • Loyalty is one aspect of Slytherin that canon and fanon readings technically agree on, but fans are significantly more sincere about this characterization.2018, Kali DeDominicis, “Fitting Him for Leather Trousers: Fanon and the Reclamation of Draco Malfoy and Slytherin House”, in Amanda Firestone, Leisa A. Clark, editors, Harry Potter and Convergence...

Proper noun capitalized: Fanon

Fanon

  1. A surname.

Forms of fanon

pluralfanons

Origin of fanon

From Middle English fanon, fanoun, from Old French fanon, from Medieval Latin fanō, from Frankish *fano, from Proto-Germanic *fanô. Doublet of fane and vane.

Blend of fan + canon.

Words formed from fanon

Words that rhyme with fanon

Questions about fanon

What does fanon mean?
Fanon means a vestment reserved only for the Pope for use during a pontifical Mass.
What part of speech is fanon?
Fanon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce fanon?
Fanon is pronounced /ˈfænən/.
What is the plural of fanon?
The plural of fanon is fanons.

Words near fanon in the dictionary

  1. Fano-Feshbach resonance
  2. Fano-Feshbach resonances
  3. fanolesomab
  4. fanom
  5. fanoms
  6. fanon
  7. Fanonian
  8. fanonical
  9. Fanonism
  10. Fanonist
  11. Fanonists

Source and license

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