pavian

/pəˈvi.ən/

pavian is the alternative form of pavane.

Meaning of pavane

pavane (plural pavanes)

A musical style characteristic of the 16th and 17th centuries.
- […] if the men should not agree what to play, but one would have a grave Pavane, another a nimbler Galliard, a third some frisking toy or Iigg, and then all of them should be wilful, none yield to his fellow, but every one scrape on his own tune as loud as he could: what a hideous hateful noise may...1656, Robert Sanderson, Twenty Sermons, London: Henry Seile, Sermon 13, p. 267
A moderately slow, courtly processional dance in duple time/meter.
- Why then be merry; be merry, or I’le be
  Out of humour, and then who shall dance the Pavan
  With Ossorio?1664, Thomas Porter, The Carnival, London: Henry Herringman, act II, scene 1, page 25
Synonyms:

Paduan

Pavian (not comparable)

Of or relating to Pavia.
- According to one early eleventh-century document, the English had taken offence at the opening of their bags and baggage by the Pavian custom officials, and had grown violet.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 91

plural	pavians

From Pavia + -an.

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does pavian mean?: Pavian means of or relating to Pavia.
What is pavian the alternative form of?: Pavian is the alternative form of pavane.
What part of speech is pavian?: Pavian is an adjective.
How do you pronounce pavian?: Pavian is pronounced /pəˈvi.ən/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: pavian (page history and authors); Pavian (page history and authors); pavane (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: 2026-09-02

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