Word.ws English Dictionary

Honan

Syllables: Ho·nan

Honan is the alternative form of Henan.

Meaning of Henan

Proper noun

Henan

  1. A province of China. Capital: Zhengzhou.
    • Heavy rainfall inundated streets and caused major rivers to burst their banks in the central province of Henan on Tuesday.[…]
    • Henan is a particularly populous province and a major transport hub. It is also a key base for industry and agriculture.2021 July 20, “China: Heavy rains cause deadly floods in Henan province”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2021, News
  2. A Mongol autonomous county in Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai, China. Official name: Henan Mongol Autonomous County.
    • The very next day, Tenzin Nyima was transferred to a prison in Henan Mongolian Autonomous County for six days of questioning.[…]
    • Once in Henan, Tenzin Nyima quickly came to know that Lodroe and Rigdrol, the monks who had helped with the flags, had also been seized.2000, Tibet Since 1950: Silence, Prison or Exile, 1st edition, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 139
  3. An island and former district, now part of Haizhu District south of the old urban core of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Proper noun

Honan (plural Honans)

  1. A surname from Irish.

Forms of Honan

pluralHonans

Origin of Honan

From the Postal Romanization of the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 河南 (Hénán, literally “[land] south of the river”).

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó hEoghanáin (“descendant of Eoghanán”), a personal name derived from a diminutive of Eoghan.

Questions about Honan

What does Honan mean?
Honan means a surname from Irish.
What is Honan the alternative form of?
Honan is the alternative form of Henan.
What part of speech is Honan?
Honan is a proper noun.

Words near Honan in the dictionary

  1. hon.
  2. Honachefsky
  3. Honaker
  4. Honakers
  5. Honam
  6. Honan
  7. Honanie
  8. Honans
  9. Honavar
  10. honbasho
  11. honbeast

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Honan (page history and authors); Henan (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.

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