Word.ws English Dictionary

taipan

/ˈtaɪpæn/

taipan noun: any venomous elapid snake of the genus Oxyuranus, found in Australia and New Guinea.

taipan: any venomous elapid snake of the genus Oxyuranus, found in Australia and New Guinea
Image: Photo by XLerate, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

taipan (plural taipans)

  1. Any venomous elapid snake of the genus Oxyuranus, found in Australia and New Guinea.

Noun (2)

taipan (plural taipans)

  1. A foreign businessman in China; a tycoon.
    • Of course it was very sad, but the taipan could hardly help a smile when he thought how many of these young fellows he had drunk underground.1922, W. Somerset Maugham, The Taipan
    • The British taipans stood in one sodden circle with their womenfolk, like bored officers at a garrison get-together.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 438
  2. (Philippines) A tycoon (usually of Chinese Filipino background)

taipan meaning in Thai

taipan in Thai

venomous snake of the genus Oxyuranus
สกุลงูไทปัน

Forms of taipan

pluraltaipans
alternative formtaepan
alternative formtai-pan
alternative formtypan

Origin of taipan

From Wik-Mungkan tay-pan (or dhayban).

From Cantonese 大班 (daai⁶ baan¹, “big shot, rich businessman”), originally as taepan. Related to tycoon, from Japanese 大君(たいくん) (taikun).

Words formed from taipan

Questions about taipan

What does taipan mean?
Taipan means any venomous elapid snake of the genus Oxyuranus, found in Australia and New Guinea.
What is taipan in Thai?
Taipan in Thai is สกุลงูไทปัน. See Taipan meaning in Thai.
What part of speech is taipan?
Taipan is a noun.
How do you pronounce taipan?
Taipan is pronounced /ˈtaɪpæn/ (UK).
What is the plural of taipan?
The plural of taipan is taipans.

Words near taipan in the dictionary

  1. Taiowa
  2. Taipa
  3. Taipa Grande
  4. Taipa Pequena
  5. Taipalsaari
  6. taipan
  7. taipans
  8. taipao
  9. Taipeh
  10. Taipei
  11. Taipeian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taipan (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-taipan.wav.

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