Word.ws English Dictionary

san

[ˈseə̯n] ~ [ˈsɛə̯n]UK/ˈsæn/

san noun: an Ancient Greek letter representing /s/ (uppercase Ϻ, lowercase ϻ), originally used in some dialects instead of sigma.

san: an Ancient Greek letter representing /s/ (uppercase Ϻ, lowercase ϻ), originally used in some...
Image: F l a n k e r, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

san (plural sans)

  1. An Ancient Greek letter representing /s/ (uppercase Ϻ, lowercase ϻ), originally used in some dialects instead of sigma.

Noun (2)

san (plural sans)

  1. (dated, informal) A sanatorium.
    • "Haven't you heard?" said Belinda. "Joan's ill! She'd got a high temperature, and she's in bed in the San."1940, Enid Blyton, The Naughtiest Girl in the School
    • ‘I was in the san for ten months before the war. I know all the gen about being sick.’1958, Doris Lessing, A Ripple From the Storm, HarperPerennial, published 1995, page 122

Noun (3) capitalized: SAN

SAN (countable and uncountable, plural SANs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of storage area network.
  2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of system area network.
  3. (abbreviation, acronym, computer security) Acronym of Subject Alternative Name.
  4. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of styrene-acrylonitrile resin.
  5. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer or sytrene acrylonitrile copolymer.
  6. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of sinoatrial node.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: SAN

SAN

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Straight Arrow News.
    • SAN asked Sanger if, instead of allowing more sources that are deemed less reliable by media watchdogs, they should make the standards stricter and ban more outlets that have a lower reliability rating.2025 October 3, Ray Bogan, “Wikipedia co-founder says site has liberal bias — here’s his plan to fix that”, in Straight Arrow News, archived from the original on 04 Oct 2025

Noun (4) capitalized: San

San pl (plural only)

  1. (ethnic, offensive, plural, plural-only, regional, slur) Any of the foraging non-Bantu ethnic groups of southwestern Africa.
    Synonyms:
    Bushmen

Proper noun (2) capitalized: San

San

  1. Any of the languages spoken by these people.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: San

San

  1. A river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine.

Noun (5) capitalized: SAn

SAn (plural SAns)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of South African.
    • On average it is possible that an Afrikaner is more racist than an Anglo white SAn, I have met many racist white English South Africans.2007, Marius, “Have you ever heard...”, in Alternate History Discussion Board

san meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

san in Hindi

सान, सैन

san in Tamil

சான்

san in Marathi

सान, सॅन

san in Urdu

سان
More languagesFewer languages
san in Bengali
স্যান
san in Telugu
శాన్, సాన్
san in Malayalam
സാൻ
san in Kannada
ಸ್ಯಾನ್, ಸಾನ್
san in Punjabi
ਸਾਨ, ਸੰਨ
san in Gujarati
સાન
san in Odia
ସାନ୍
san in Nepali
सान, स्यान

Examples of san in a sentence

  • San Francisco, eh? That's funny, I was there just the other day.
  • San Francisco was a very crunchy town.
  • San Luis Reservoir is the largest offstream reservoir in the United States, receiving most of its water from the California Aqueduct.

All 14 example sentences with san

Synonyms of san

Forms of san

pluralsans
pluralSANs
alternative formSaan
pluralSAns

Plural of san: sans

Origin of san

From Ancient Greek σάν (sán), from a Semitic language.

Shortening of sanatorium.

As a synonym of Bushmen introduced into ethnology from the 1960s, from Khoekhoe saan (singular saa) "foragers; people without wealth", via back-formation from Khoisan. Occasional citation as the Nama term for "Bushmen" from the 1880s.

Words formed from san

Phrases with san

186 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with san

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about san

What does san mean?
San means an Ancient Greek letter representing /s/ (uppercase Ϻ, lowercase ϻ), originally used in some dialects instead of sigma.
What is san in Hindi?
San in Hindi is सान, सैन. See San meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is san?
San can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce san?
San is pronounced /ˈsæn/ (UK).
What is the plural of san?
The plural of san is sans.

Words near san in the dictionary

  1. Samways
  2. samwich
  3. samwiches
  4. Samwise Gamgee
  5. samydaceous
  6. san
  7. San Agustin
  8. San Agustin I
  9. San Agustin II
  10. San Agustín
  11. San Alejo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: san (page history and authors); SAN (page history and authors); San (page history and authors); SAn (page history and authors); san (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); san (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-san.ogg.

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