Word.ws English Dictionary

slanhood

Syllables: slan·hood/ˈslænhʊd/

slanhood noun: the state of being a science fiction fan.

Noun

slanhood (uncountable)

  1. (dated, slang) The state of being a science fiction fan.
    • Because the central character in the story [Slan (1940) by A. E. van Vogt] was a youth in unsympathetic surroundings, and because of the obvious similarities to fans' dreams of greatness, the unserious claim to slanhood has become the Third Fandom parallel to the Second Fandom's half-serious...1944, John Bristol Speer, “slan”, in Fancyclopedia, Los Angeles, Calif.: Forrest J[ames] Ackerman, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2020, page 81, column 1
    • In the specific focus of providing a reference who can verify your tenured slanhood to the administrators, let's set the record straight and let's get very real and very clear about something here.1997 October 29, Dave Locke, “Re: The Good Ol’ ‘Write-In’ Ballot”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet), retrieved 16 Nov 2016, message-ID <34567d4e.63131406@news.pipeline.com>

Origin of slanhood

From slan (“fan of science fiction”) + -hood (suffix denoting a condition or state of being). Slan is from the title of the science fiction novel Slan (1940) by Canadian-born author A. E. van Vogt (1912–2000), about persecuted – yet physically, mentally and morally superior – telepathic mutant humans.

Words that rhyme with slanhood

Questions about slanhood

What does slanhood mean?
Slanhood means the state of being a science fiction fan.
What part of speech is slanhood?
Slanhood is a noun.
How do you pronounce slanhood?
Slanhood is pronounced /ˈslænhʊd/ (UK).

Words near slanhood in the dictionary

  1. slangwhangers
  2. slangwhanging
  3. slangwhangs
  4. slangwise
  5. slangy
  6. slanhood
  7. slank
  8. slanket
  9. slankets
  10. slanks
  11. slannish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slanhood (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-slanhood.wav.

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