Word.ws English Dictionary

pecan

Syllables: pe·can/piːˈkɑːn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Midwestern US/pɪˈkɑːn/

pecan noun: a deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.

pecan: a deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply...
Image: Bruce Marlin, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pecan (plural pecans)

  1. A deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.
    • And away on the farther bank, a motte of huge pecans, standing like giant sentinels over the dwarfed landscape, filled the eye with remote vistas in their shady, twilight aisles. It was very still.1885, Howard Seely, A Ranchman's stories, page 154
    • Within its ornamental fence, the 8/10-acre property includes several of the largest live oaks in the area — plus huge pecans and stately magnolias.1978 April, Texas Monthly, page 51
  2. A smooth, thin-shelled, edible oval nut of this tree.
    • MEG. […] (Meg takes out two pecans and tries to open them by cracking them together.) Come on ... Crack, you demons! Crack!
      LENNY. We have a nutcracker!
      MEG. (Trying with her teeth.) Ah, where's the sport in a nutcracker? Where's the challenge?1982, Beth Henley, Crimes of the heart, page 17
  3. A half of the edible portion of the inside of this nut.
    • Each shell contains two pecans, usually plump and oblong in shape, although some varieties are round or pointed.2005, in The Condensed Encyclopedia of Healing Foods (Joseph Pizzorno, Lara Pizzorno; Atria Books)

pecan meaning in Pashto and Arabic

pecan in Pashto

pecan
پکان pakân

pecan in Arabic

nut
بَقَّان baqqān, بِيكَان bīkān
tree
بَقَّان baqqān

Examples of pecan in a sentence

  • We can send you a hundred pounds a month of pecans to crack up.
  • We spent all day Sunday and picked up a buttload of pecans.
  • Doggonit, she made me waste my doggone pecan candy.

All 20 example sentences with pecan

Forms of pecan

pluralpecans
alternative possibly (obsolete, dated)paccan
alternative possibly (obsolete, dated)peccan

Plural of pecan: pecans

Origin of pecan

Borrowed from French pacane and at first spelt paccan. The French word derives from an Algonquian word, perhaps Miami (Illinois) pakani. Compare Cree pakan (“hard nut”), Ojibwe bagaan, Abenaki pagann, bagôn, pagôn (“nut; walnut, hazelnut”).

Words formed from pecan

Phrases with pecan

Questions about pecan

What does pecan mean?
Pecan means a deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.
What is pecan in Pashto?
Pecan in Pashto is پکان (pakân). See Pecan meaning in Pashto.
What part of speech is pecan?
Pecan is a noun.
How do you pronounce pecan?
Pecan is pronounced /piːˈkɑːn/.
What is the plural of pecan?
The plural of pecan is pecans.

Words near pecan in the dictionary

  1. pec pop
  2. pec popped
  3. pec popping
  4. pec pops
  5. PECA
  6. pecan
  7. pecan pie
  8. pecan pies
  9. pecan sandies
  10. pecan sandy
  11. pecan tree

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pecan (page history and authors); پکان (Pashto) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-pecan.oga, en-au-pecan.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pecan.wav.

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