Word.ws English Dictionary

makan

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Singapore/ˈmɑkɑn/

makan verb: to eat.

Verb

makan (invariable)

  1. (Manglish, Singlish, invariable) To eat.
    • Mdm Zaiton: You makan already? Eat what?2023, Alfian Sa'at, “Dreamplay”, in Collected Plays Two, Singapore: Ethos Books, →ISBN

Noun

makan (uncountable)

  1. (Manglish, Singlish) Food.
    • “HDB there already got makan, they want to come here for what? So leceh,” Mr Razali says. He opens his stall only on weekdays, from 6.30 AM to about 3 PM in the afternoon.2021 June 8, Sean Lim, quoting Razali, “These Stalls Used To Fuel Workers At Industrial Parks. Now, They Are Barely Surviving”, in ricemedia.co, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2025
    • It’s not uncommon for Singapore’s F&B landscape to shift in an almost rapid and unsteady fashion. Some businesses morph and transform, closing and reopening spaces to keep up with changes.2024 April 14, Daniel Peters, “In Memoriam: Our Makan Places Lost to Time”, in ricemedia.co, archived from the original on 17 May 2025

Origin of makan

Unadapted borrowing from Malay makan. Doublet of kai.

Phrases with makan

Questions about makan

What does makan mean?
Makan means to eat.
What part of speech is makan?
Makan can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce makan?
Makan is pronounced /ˈmɑkɑn/ (Singapore).

Words near makan in the dictionary

  1. Makalla
  2. makaloa
  3. Makalu
  4. makaluvamine
  5. makaluvamines
  6. makan
  7. makanga
  8. makangas
  9. makar
  10. Makar Sankranti
  11. makara

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: makan (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: “makan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/makan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.