How to use wan in a sentence

27 example sentences · adjective, noun

Wan means pale, sickly-looking. Example: “Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.”

Examples of wan by meaning

adjectivePale, sickly-looking.

Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 24
Instead, you wiped off the red lipstick with wadded-up toilet paper and forced a smile, leaving the locker room with a pale, cotton candy-colored lipstick that made you look wan and parched instead.2020, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Minneapolis: Milkweed...

adjectiveBland, uninterested.

A wan expression
Checking out her brother’s khakis, the gun propped in the corner, Olivia’s hiking boots and her wan expression, she wants to laugh.2013, Carter Dreyfuss, chapter 1, in The Prince of Temple Square: A Murder Mystery, Tucson, Ariz.: Wheatmark, →ISBN, pages 8–9

nounA girl or woman.

Then I’d tell myself there were plenty of oul wans and oul fellas in work who never got it and that I’d be lucky like them and escape.1993, Elaine Crowley, The Ways Of Women, London: Orion, →ISBN

More sentences with wan

Hillary grows more and more glowy as Obama grows more and more wan.2008 April 27, Maureen Dowd, “Desperately Seeking Street Cred”, in New York Times. From the entry glowy
'I see Mickey's wans are puttin' in a boarden floor in the room,' she said.2005, Peadar O'Donnell, Islanders, page 45. From the entry boarden
I'll be available through my AOL mailbox during the trip to Taïwan.2001 October 6, GeirSmith, “Pal Taïwan stop-over can go to Nepal”, in de.soc.weltanschauung.buddhismus (Usenet), retrieved 24 May 2022. From the entry Taïwan
There's no way that hoose could be painted right in wan day; they must've blootered it.1996, M. Munro, Complete Patter. From the entry blooter
Taïwan is the largest producer of first quality preserved mushrooms in the world.1975, Official Journal of the European Communities: Legislation. From the entry Taïwan
Yiss, ramin, ravin mad at Betty sood be abune her edder wan wye or da idder.1919, Thomas Manson, Humours of a Peat Commission. From the entry rame
Sir, he said, I saw nothing but the waters wap and the waves wan.1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “How king Arthur commanded to cast his sword Excalibur into the water and how he was delivered to ladies in a…. From the entry wap
The educated man of the twentieth century is not anaemic, languishing in a washed-out, wan vitality.(Can we date this quote?), Wake Forest College, Bulletin of Wake Forest College…. From the entry anaemic
"Went away quick, now, or I'll come out dere an' bite off wan o' youse's fins."1901, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, a Popular Journal of General Literature, page 34. From the entry youse's
Every time I deep it, man dem wan' eat it.2020 February 10, “Daffy Duckin'”performed by Angel, Chaz Marcus. From the entry deep
If ye bring ye'er wife f'r to see th'game, an' she has her name in th'paper, that counts ye wan.2012, Jeff Silverman, Classic Golf Stories: 26 Incredible Tales from the Links, →ISBN, page 169. From the entry ye'd
Wan was in front, beway he was the ginral, walkin' wid his chin up, proud as a paycock.2009, Bob Curran, Celtic Lore & Legend. From the entry beway
Wan Chai Gap gives you access to all of Aberdeen Country Park with its beautiful reservoirs and diverse trails.2005 January 1, Alicia M. Kershaw, Ginger Thrash, Above The City: Hiking Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong University Press, →ISBN, page 53. From the entry Wan Chai Gap
There are branch roads from Hoifung to various centres in Honghai wan, and the road continues to Chaochow from Hoifung.1944, China Proper, Volume I: Physical Geography, History and Peoples, Naval Intelligence Division, →OCLC, page 149. From the entry Hoifung
I nade not say that we do not want the wan whom a gang av political hummers and gutther-politicians have nominated.1916 April 29, Tom Teaser, “Muldoon's Boarding House”, in Happy Days, page 9. From the entry hummer
Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.1906, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 1, in The Malefactor. From the entry attenuate
Wanner guided me to Eyrbyggja Saga.2015, Susan Signe Morrison, The Literature of Waste, acknowledgements. From the entry latrinal
To the four very willing swanesses of Egypt, Mass., Gloomy Gus, the wan swan from California, is just a pain in the neck.1947 April 19, “Non-Necking Swan Swain Pain In Neck of Unpecked Swanees”, in Valley Times, volume XI, number 94, North Hollywood, Calif.…. From the entry swaness
“I’m gonna shootcha all I wan’.1934, Henry Roth, “The Cellar”, in Call It Sleep, Avon Books, published 1965, chapter X, page 82. From the entry shootcha
This is a local tradition in Chang-chou (K’ang-yu chi-hsing 14, 3a); in nearby Ch’ao-chou (Kuangtung) the Confucianist Han Yu is regarded as responsible (Ch ‘iu-yü-wan sui-pi 6, 23b).1975, Wolfram Eberhard, “The Upper-Class Family in Traditional China”, in Charles E. Rosenberg, editor, The Family in History, University…. From the entry En-p'ing
CHAN-CHIANG (Cantonese TSAM-KONG), a port city on the east coast head of the Luichow peninsula, on Kuang-chou wan (Kwangchow bay), Kwangtung province, south coast of China.1964, Joseph Earle Spencer, “CHAN-CHIANG”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 5, →OCLC, page 264, column 2. From the entry Chan-chiang
In twenty-wan years in this box I don't believe I've ever pulled down wan of those signal yokes without half-expecting a pint of stout to come out down below somewhere.2013, Flann O'Brien, “O'Dea's Your Man”, in Collected Plays and Teleplays, →ISBN, page 417. From the entry gawm

Meaning of wan

adjective Pale, sickly-looking.
adjective Dim, faint.
adjective Bland, uninterested.

Full definition of wan

Questions about wan in a sentence

How do you use wan in a sentence?: Wan is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.”
What is a short sentence with wan?: “A wan expression”
What does wan mean?: Wan means pale, sickly-looking.

Adapted from Wiktionary: wan (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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