Word.ws English Dictionary

stan

/stæn//stæn/

stan noun: an extremely obsessive fan of a person, group, character, or creative work, particularly one whose fixation is unhealthy or intrusive.

Noun (1)

stan (plural stans)

  1. (Internet, derogatory, sometimes) An extremely obsessive fan of a person, group, character, or creative work, particularly one whose fixation is unhealthy or intrusive.
    • K-pop stan
    • I know the in-depth detailed life of a stan because I am one. I'm one of those Lady Gaga fans, […]2011 October 11, Vanessa Spates, “Whether in Britney's Army or Rihanna's Navy, stans need to surrender to sanity”, in The Lantern, volume 132, number 16, Ohio State University, page 9A

Verb

stan (third-person singular simple present stans, present participle stanning, simple past and past participle stanned)

  1. (intransitive, slang, transitive) To act as a stan (for); to be an obsessive fan (of).
    • We stan a queen.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:stan.

Noun (2)

stan (plural stans)

  1. (informal) A country, often ex-Soviet, whose name ends with -stan, such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, or Kazakhstan.
    • “There are a lot of former Soviet states – a lot of stans.”
      This is a stan with a plan. Unlike Uzbekistan[…].2015 July 30, Jules Boykoff, “Beijing and Almaty contest Winter Olympics in human rights nightmare”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Sep 2025

Proper noun capitalized: Stan

Stan (countable and uncountable, plural Stans)

  1. A municipality in southeast Slovenia.
  2. A diminutive of the male given name Stanley.
    • Stan Jessop taught at a different school now but lived in the same small 1930s semi-detached as he had done ten years ago. Stan made him sound like an old allotment guy but he was only thirty-six.2010, Kate Atkinson, Case Histories: (Jackson Brodie), Random House, →ISBN, page 307
    • Finally, there’s a Stan Lee fly, in honor of the late Marvel Comics visionary.2020 July 29, Jessie Yeung, “Australia names new species after Deadpool, Thor, and other Marvel favorites”, in CNN
  3. A diminutive of the male given name Stanislav.
  4. A surname from Romanian.

Noun (3) capitalized: Stan

Stan (plural Stans)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of stan (a type of superfan)

Noun (4) capitalized: Stan

Stan (plural Stans)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of stan (country whose name ends with -stan)

stan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

stan in Hindi

स्टेन, स्टैन

stan in Tamil

ஸ்டான், ஸ்டேன்

stan in Marathi

स्टॅन, स्टेन

stan in Urdu

سٹین, اسٹین, سٹان
More languagesFewer languages
stan in Bengali
স্ট্যান, স্টান, স্ট্যানের কাছে
stan in Telugu
స్టాన్, స్తాన్, స్టాన్కు
stan in Malayalam
സ്റ്റാൻ
stan in Kannada
ಸ್ಟ್ಯಾನ್, ಸ್ಟಾನ್
stan in Punjabi
ਸਟੈਨ, ਸਟੈਨ ਤੱਕ
stan in Gujarati
સ્ટાન, સ્ટાનને
stan in Odia
ଷ୍ଟାନ୍, ଷ୍ଟାନ, ଷ୍ଟାନକୁ
stan in Nepali
स्टेन, स्ट्यान, स्टान

Examples of stan in a sentence

  • I am the biggest stan for Selena because she is my queen.2013 March 17, “Selena Gomez: She Is My Queen”, in Sunday Tribune, South Africa:
  • Incidents have occurred with stans showing up to pop stars' residences, as has happened with Madonna, Taylor Swift and others.2013 December 5, Jake Folsom, “Stans take dedication to extreme heights online, in real life”, in Washington Square News, volume 41, number...
  • K-pop stans have been getting increasingly involved in American politics in recent months.2020 June 21, “TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally”, in The New York Times:
  • “Stans will literally go to any extent to defend anyone,” he said of Mr.2022 April 29, Ezra Marcus, “Johnny Depp Case Brings Stan Culture Into the Courtroom”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms of stan

Noun
pluralstans
alternative formStan
alternative form'Stan
alternative form'stan
alternative form-stan
alternative form-Stan
pluralStans
Verb
third-person singular presentstans
present participlestanning
past participlestanned
paststanned
Proper noun
pluralStans

Origin of stan

From Stan (“Stanley”), after the song "Stan" by Eminem (2000), a fictitious account of the rapper's encounter with an overly obsessive fan named Stan. Sometimes assumed to be a blend of stalker + fan, but perhaps simply chosen for the rhyme.

Back-formation from -stan.

Clipping of Stanley.

Words formed from stan

Words that rhyme with stan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stan

What does stan mean?
Stan means an extremely obsessive fan of a person, group, character, or creative work, particularly one whose fixation is unhealthy or intrusive.
What is stan in Hindi?
Stan in Hindi is स्टेन, स्टैन. See Stan meaning in Hindi.
How do you use stan in a sentence?
I am the biggest stan for Selena because she is my queen.
What part of speech is stan?
Stan can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce stan?
Stan is pronounced /stæn/ (UK).
What is the plural of stan?
The plural of stan is stans.

Words near stan in the dictionary

  1. stamps of approval
  2. stamps out
  3. stampt
  4. stams
  5. stamulumab
  6. stan
  7. Stan Twitter
  8. stan'
  9. Stanaland
  10. Stanalands
  11. Stanard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stan (page history and authors); Stan (page history and authors); stan (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stan (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-au-stan.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stan.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-Stan.wav.

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