Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use clan in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Clan means a group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known. Example: “We've never even seen a flutter in the loyalty of the MacKenzie clan.”

Examples of clan by meaning

nounA group of badgers.

  • if the clan of badgers next door isn't marking its boundaries2017, Stephan Price, Thinking Through Badgers, Vernon Press, page 246
  • it might support a clan of badgers willing to share, although not necessarily to compromise, their individual food security to gain the advantage of reduced food defence costs.2022, David Macdonald, Chris Newman, The Badgers of Wytham Woods
  • One fascinating, but not entirely unexpected, finding from my semi-captive clan of badgers is that any aggression between the individuals builds up to a horrible crescendo if their food gets scarce.2019, Prof. Hans Kruuk, The Call of Carnivores, Pelagic Publishing

More sentences with clan

  • We've never even seen a flutter in the loyalty of the MacKenzie clan.From the entry flutter
  • And our deepthroaters intimate that Max was friendly with many pirate clans.2018, Christopher Hinz, The Paratwa Saga: Liege-Killer, Ash Ock, and The Paratwa. From the entry deepthroater
  • They belong to the “Ceusi” mafia clan, a family tied to Catania’s dominant Santopaula clan.2016 July 24, Mark Townsend, “Is Cosa Nostra now selling deadly assault weapons to Islamist terrorist groups?”, in The Guardian. From the entry Catanian
  • Members of the bear clan may have dispositional, cognitive, and physical capabilities similar to those of bear.2014, Michael Pomedli, Living with Animals: Ojibwe Spirit Powers, page 165. From the entry totem
  • In London, on Stair's proposal, it was decided to enregiment the Whig clans.2012, Andrew Lang, The History of Scotland, volume 12. From the entry enregiment
  • Even pets understand kindness, and the clan brothers use that as an example.2010, Justin B. Richland, Sarah Deer, Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies, page 193. From the entry brother
  • The CDEM will not attempt to extract citizens threatened by clan warfare.2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka. From the entry at one's own risk
  • Larger clans, with bigger ships and more votes, form the cores of political blocs.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians: Government Codex entry. From the entry representative
  • The town of Changnyeong in Gyeongsang province is where my family clan originated.2008, Grace M. Cho, “Introduction: The Fabric of Erasure”, in Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War…. From the entry Gyeongsang
  • What if a high-ranked Counter-Strike clan hooked up with some of those crazy Korean StarCrafters?2008 October, George Stewart, “Two great tastes that taste great together”, in Electronic Gaming Monthly, number 233, page 20. From the entry StarCrafter
  • When a Keres dies, a priesthood supervises the burial, not the clan.2007, Jay Miller, Keresan Pueblos and Chaco Canyon Speculations on Language Identity, Puebloan Cultures, and Southwestern Prehistory…. From the entry Keres
  • Depends on the size of the clan and your availability really.1999 April 6, Rob Crossland, “Re: How to join a Clan? etc”, in uk.games.computer.quake2 (Usenet). From the entry praccy
  • It can get pretty hectic but if the clan is big enough it shouldn't be too bad.1999 April 6, Rob Crossland, “Re: How to join a Clan? etc”, in uk.games.computer.quake2 (Usenet). From the entry praccy
  • From another clan, his family was not rich in deer but had a moderate herd.1998, Gail Fondahl, Gaining Ground?: Evenkis, Land and Reform in Southeastern Siberia, page 22. From the entry tyan
  • The mythical clan belief is the only culprit of the misery in Somalia.1998 November 1, Abdiwali M Ahmed, “Would it be a sin...”, in soc.culture.somalia (Usenet). From the entry somalism
  • He summoned all the opara (the first sons) of each family in the clan.1991, John E. Eberegbulam Njoku, Short Stories of the Traditional People of Nigeria, →ISBN. From the entry opara
  • Sia suay (Hokkien for bringing shame to the entire clan) only.1989 November 2, “From love songs to 'pai kia' tune. Karaoke is BIG business.”, in The Straits Times, Singapore. From the entry sia suay
  • In order of rank, the matricians were the pig, dog, snake, and iguana clans.1982, Ron E. Roberts, Douglas E. Brintnall, Reinventing inequality: an inquiry into society and stratification, Schenkman Books. From the entry matrician
  • Of a handful of sheng-yüan lists available, two are arranged according to local clans.1964, Ping-ti Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China, Science Editions, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 167. From the entry Hai-men
  • After cremation the Khasi take the ashes of their dead to the clan cinerarium.1918, William James Perry, The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, page 42. From the entry cinerarium
  • The Maoli clan worships a goddess at a shrine which women may not approach.1910, Sir James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy: 3. An ethnographical survey of totemism. From the entry maoli
  • EA, to which many in OpenAI’s Safety clan were early adherents, made for the perfect Silicon Valley ideology.2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN. From the entry ea
  • The attendants of this contest in recent years are mostly people from the various Taiwanese clans from the Cigu District 七股.2020, Joey Yap, Legendary Chinese Festivals, →ISBN. From the entry Cigu
  • Artist and activist Ellen Gabriel remembered him as a “great statesman, a fluent Kanien’kéha speaker and Turtle clan relative.”2020 August 15, The Canadian Press, “Kahnawake Grand Chief Joseph Norton remembered as statesman, defender of Mohawk rights”, in The Globe…. From the entry Kanien'kéha
  • In MEROPS, MA clan members are grouped into the MA(E) and MA(M) subclans, commonly termed as gluzincins and metzincins, respectively.2015 September 24, “Comparison of the Internal Dynamics of Metalloproteases Provides New Insights on Their Function and Evolution”, in…. From the entry gluzincins
  • Finally, he mistotals the number of men who married into their father's clan group to 34, instead of 33.2014, Linda S Cordell, Stephen Beckerman, The Versatility of Kinship, page 138. From the entry mistotal
  • The Lambert clan was togetherish, as Georgina frequently complained.2013, Janet Taylor Lisle, Looking for Juliette. From the entry togetherish
  • The clan handouts that kept other Somalis afloat were absent here, as the Yibros were so few and so poor.2010, Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 67. From the entry afloat
  • Practically for all interrogated organizations only the desire to strengthen attributes of other (clan, adhocratical and market) cultures is common.2004, Sławomira Partyckiego, editor, Człowiek a rynek [People and the Market] (Prace Wydziału Nauk Społecznych [Works of the Faculty of…. From the entry adhocratical
  • Coastal pods tend to share a large area with other pods, and sometimes combine temporarily to form ‘superpods’ or clans.1991, Martha Holmes, Sea Trek, BBC Books, page 41. From the entry superpod
  • Many ethnoi are divided into tribes and clans.1990, Leo Gumilëv, Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere, Moscow: Progress Publishers, →ISBN, page 85. From the entry gentile
  • Three elders dressed in their long silk ceremonial gowns perform the kowtow before the altar in their clan ancestral hall.1990, Hugh D. R. Baker, Hong Kong Images: People and Animals, Hong Kong University Press, →ISBN, page 93. From the entry kowtow
  • Marriage within the same clan is prohibited.1977, P. R. G. Mathur, Tribal Situation in Kerala, page 56. From the entry sororate
  • The two localities in which these clans lived are T’ung-chou in southern Kiangsu and the neighboring Hai-men sub-county.1964, Ping-ti Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China, Science Editions, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 167. From the entry Hai-men
  • Then a few pages further on you come upon another member of the same clan as the Jinn—an Efreet.1936 December 4, Geo[rge] Beale, “The Arabian Nights (Concluding Article)”, in West Lothian Courier […], 67th year, number 3538, Bathgate…. From the entry efreet
  • The leader of this party was Khoshaba, one of the chiefs, though not the real malik of the Lower Tiyari clan.1935, Ronald Sempill Stafford, The Tragedy of the Assyrian Minority in Iraq. From the entry malik
  • But I have never set foot in my house there, for it is carpeted throughout with the tartan of my clan.1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company…. From the entry glen

Meaning of clan

  1. noun A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.
  2. noun A traditional social group of families in the Scottish Highlands having a common hereditary chieftain.
  3. noun Any group defined by family ties with some sort of political unity.

Full definition of clan

Questions about clan in a sentence

How do you use clan in a sentence?
Clan is used as a noun. For example: “We've never even seen a flutter in the loyalty of the MacKenzie clan.”
What is a short sentence with clan?
“Marriage within the same clan is prohibited.”
What does clan mean?
Clan means a group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clan (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use clan in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/clan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.