pan-pan
/pæn.pæn/
pan-pan noun: a radio call indicating a minor emergency requiring some assistance, or priority in handling, but not endangering the safety of the vessel or those aboard.
Noun (1)
pan-pan (uncountable)
- A radio call indicating a minor emergency requiring some assistance, or priority in handling, but not endangering the safety of the vessel or those aboard.
- It should be a relatively simple matter (particularly on a modern yacht) to teach almost anyone to heave-to, take the position from an electronic navigator, then make a PAN-PAN call on the radio (see below).1996, John Mellor, Handling Troubles Afloat, page 179
- You can use the same outline for Pan Pan calls.2005, Bob Armstrong, Getting Started in Powerboating, page 170
Noun (2)
pan-pan
- A Japanese prostitute who catered to American GIs in post-WWII occupied Japan.
- In his recent overview of occupied Japan, John Dower poignantly describes the "pan-pan girls" who offended conservatives with their willingness to trade sexual favors for the Americans' gifts and money.2003, David Richard Leheny, The Rules of Play: National Identity and the Shaping of Japanese Leisure, →ISBN
- Their fiction does, however, reflect specificiteis of post-Surrender society; the women work as maids and pan-pan, American GIs are ever-present, and shortages and disruptions are commonplace.2004, Douglas Slaymaker, The Body in Postwar Japanese Fiction, →ISBN, page 41
Examples of pan-pan in a sentence
- If you transmit a Pan-Pan call, then find that you no longer require assistance, you must cancel the message.2006, Elbert S. Maloney, Chapman Piloting & Seamanship, page 411:
- ...popular perceptions of the pan-pan has given way in Ōe's series to an androcentric censure that sees the native intellectual youth as the chief victim of occupation.2007, The Journal of Japanese Studies - Volume 33, Issue 2, page 400:
Forms of pan-pan
| alternative form | pan pan |
|---|---|
| alternative form | panpan |
| alternative form | Pan Pan |
| alternative form | Pan-Pan |
| alternative form | PAN-PAN |
Origin of pan-pan
From French panne (“breakdown”), reduplicated.
From Japanese パンパン (panpan), an ellipsis of パンパンガール (panpangāru).
Questions about pan-pan
- What does pan-pan mean?
- Pan-pan means a radio call indicating a minor emergency requiring some assistance, or priority in handling, but not endangering the safety of the vessel or those aboard.
- How do you use pan-pan in a sentence?
- If you transmit a Pan-Pan call, then find that you no longer require assistance, you must cancel the message.
- What part of speech is pan-pan?
- Pan-pan is a noun.
- How do you pronounce pan-pan?
- Pan-pan is pronounced /pæn.pæn/.
Words near pan-pan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pan-pan (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: “pan-pan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pan-pan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.