scan

UK/skæn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/skan/

scan verb: to examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.

Verb

scan (third-person singular simple present scans, present participle scanning, simple past and past participle scanned)

(transitive) To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
- She scanned the passage carefully but could not find what she was looking for.
- He scanned the horizon.
1. (transitive) To inspect, analyse or go over, often to find something.
  - to scan the hard drive for errors
(transitive) To look about for; to look over quickly.
1. (transitive) To perform lexical analysis; to tokenize.
(transitive) To create an image of something with the use of a scanner.
- to scan a photograph
- to scan internal organs by means of computed tomography
(transitive) To read with an electronic device.
- to scan a barcode
- to scan a QR code
(obsolete, transitive, originally) To mount by steps; to go through with step by step.
- But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan, / There is a spot should not be pass'd in vain,— / Morat ! the proud, the patriot field ! where man / May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain,[…]1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXIII, page 36
(transitive) To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.
- In such cases as these, almost any one with a good ear will "scan" the verse correctly enough without instruction. It is not proposed to give here a list of Shakspere's slurred and contracted words; […]1886, Francis Barton Gummere, A Handbook of Poetics for Students of English Verse, page 218
(intransitive) To conform to a metrical structure.
- You're right, sir, it doesn't scan very well in the English, but in the Gaelic it's sheer poetry. Have you the Gaelic?1998, Milton Acorn, Cedric Smith, edited by James Deahl, The Road to Charlottetown: A Play, UnMon Northland

Noun

scan (plural scans)

Of written things, a careful reading.

Synonyms:

perusal
Of written things, a cursory reading: a skim.

Synonyms:

perusal
An instance of scanning.
- The operators vacated the room during the scan.
- In the dispute with the RMT about scanning tickets, Jackson said it was the right thing to do to pay conductors something to scan tickets. Northern pays two pence per scan, Jackson noted, adding that ticket scanning helps to cut fraud and increase staff visibility.2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Network News: TPE MD: consider impact of strikes on passengers”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 11
The result or output of a scanning process.
- The doctors looked at the scans and made a diagnosis.
(functional programming) A higher-order function that applies a binary operation to a sequence of values, starting with an accumulator, and returns a new sequence with the results.

scan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

scan in Tamil

மருத்துவம், வருடு, நுண்ணாய், நோட்டம் செய், நுகர், நோக்கு

scan in Urdu

جانچنا, پڑتال کرنا

More languagesFewer languages

scan in Bengali: নির্ণয় করা, খুঁটিয়া দেখা, ছন্দের নিয়মসম্মত হওয়া
scan in Telugu: స్కాన్ చేయండి, స్కాన్, స్కాన్ చేస్కోండి
scan in Malayalam: ശ്രദ്ധയോടെ വായിക്കുക, ഓടിച്ച് നോക്കുക, നിരൂപിക്കുക, വ്യാഖ്യാനിക്കുക
scan in Kannada: ಕಣ್ಣು ಹಾಯಿಸು, ಸ್ಥೂಲವಾಗಿ ಕಣ್ಣೋಡಿಸು, ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮವಾಗಿ ನೋಡು, ಶೋಧಿಸು
scan in Punjabi: ਸਕੈਨ ਕਰੋ, ਸਕੈਨ
scan in Gujarati: સ્કેન કરો, સ્કૅન કરો, સ્કેનીંગ કરો
scan in Odia: ସ୍କାନ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ସ୍କାନ କରନ୍ତୁ
scan in Nepali: स्क्यान गर्नुहोस्, स्क्यान
scan in Tagalog: iscan
scan in Arabic: مَحَّصَ maḥḥaṣa, تَمَعَّنَ tamaʕʕana, مَسَحَ ضَوْئِيًّا masaḥa ḍawʔiyyan
scan in Malay: mengimbas, pengimbasan, imbasan
scan in Indonesian: memindai, pemindaian, pindaian
scan in Thai: สแกน sà-gɛɛn, กราดภาพ gràat-pâap

Examples of scan in a sentence

Pencil drawings don't scan very well.
For I had learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not to scan their actions.1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter ii
Slowly, he scanned the horizon, listening, watching for the signs he had been taught.1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book III: The Prophet”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson &...
As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

All 40 example sentences with scan

Synonyms of scan

perusal

Forms of scan

Verb
third-person singular present	scans
present participle	scanning
past participle	scanned
past	scanned
Noun
plural	scans

Past tense of scan: scanned

Plural of scan: scans

Origin of scan

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“to climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

Words formed from scan

Phrases with scan

Words that rhyme with scan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scan

What does scan mean?: Scan means to examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
What is scan in Hindi?: Scan in Hindi is स्कैन करें, स्कैन कीजिए. See Scan meaning in Hindi.
How do you use scan in a sentence?: Pencil drawings don't scan very well.
What part of speech is scan?: Scan can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce scan?: Scan is pronounced /skæn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of scan?: The past tense of scan is scanned.

Words near scan in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: scan (page history and authors); scan (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scan (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scan (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scan (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scan (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scan (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scan (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scan (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scan (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: 2026-09-02

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

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