Word.ws English Dictionary

van

/væn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/van/

van noun: a covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus. Also the clipping of vanguard.

van: a covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly...
Image: Users DonIncognito, Take Me Higher on en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

van (plural vans)

  1. A covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus.
    • While Santa Monica has a longstanding prohibition against public camping that includes living in vehicles, the van rental business has been a problem in Venice for years. […] Organizations that provide safe parking locations have limited capacity and are often unable to accommodate the kind of...2023 May 19, Matthew Hall, “Los Angeles Councilwoman targets “vanlord” industry”, in Santa Monica Daily Press
    • Carbon emissions from vans in the UK have risen by 63% since 1990, new analysis shows, as cars are getting cleaner. While more people are opting to drive electric or plug-in hybrid cars, van drivers still prefer diesel because electric vans are much more expensive with little choice of models.2024 June 22, James Tapper, “Carbon emissions from vans still rising as UK drivers cling to diesel”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    minivan, minibus
  2. (UK) An enclosed railway vehicle for transport of goods, such as a boxcar/box van.
  3. (dated) A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods.
  4. A large towable vehicle equipped for the repair of structures that cannot easily be moved.
    • Designed to be fully mobile and self-contained, the complete equipment includes an air-conditioned van containing all necessary electronic gear and a flat bed trailer in which missiles, jet engines and other large assemblies may be cleaned.1959, Western Aerospace, volume 39, page 46

Verb (1)

van (third-person singular simple present vans, present participle vanning, simple past and past participle vanned)

  1. (transitive) To transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses).
    • I have to have a license to own them, a license to train them, my jockey has to have a license to ride them, the van company must have a license to van them, and the black shoe man must have a license to shoe them.1966, United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
    • [They] had their own horses, but they hadn't bothered to van them over to Pine Hollow for this outing.1999, Bonnie Bryant, Changing Leads, page 53
  2. (Internet) Of law enforcement: to arrest (not necessarily in a van; derived from party van).
    • One Anon explained the reason for this, saying: "As for the domains, they were transferred to Ryan after some of us got vanned so he can keep the network up. What he did certainly wasn't the plan." (Getting "vanned" refers to getting picked up by the police.)2011, The hackers hacked: main Anonymous IRC servers invaded
    • He later told CW that he had been "v&" or "vanned" by the police, and he expressed surprise that the police showed him detailed transcripts of his conversations.2012, FBI names, arrests Anon who infiltrated its secret conference call

Noun (2)

van (plural vans)

  1. A shovel used in cleansing ore.

Verb (2)

van (third-person singular simple present vans, present participle vanning, simple past and past participle vanned)

  1. To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.

Noun (3)

van (plural vans)

  1. A fan or other contrivance, such as a sieve, for winnowing grain.
    • with strange amaze / A shepherd meeting thee, the oar surveys, / And names a van (Book XI)1726, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, The Odyssey
  2. A wing with which the air is beaten.
    • So Satan fell; and ſtrait a fiery Globe / Of Angels on full ſail of wing flew nigh, / Who on their plumy Vans receiv'd him ſoft […]1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 108–109, lines...
    • He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans in vain; / His vans no longer could his flight sustain.1717, John Dryden, Ovid's Metamorphoses, book XII

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Van

Van

  1. An unincorporated community in Arkansas County, Arkansas.
  2. An unincorporated community in Polk County, Missouri.
  3. An unincorporated community in Harney County, Oregon.
  4. A city in Van Zandt County, Texas.
  5. An unincorporated community in Lee County, Virginia.
  6. A census-designated place in Boone County, West Virginia.
  7. A community and suburb of Caerphilly in Caerphilly borough (OS grid ref ST1686).
  8. A hamlet in Llanidloes Without community, Powys (OS grid ref SN9587).

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Van

Van

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Vanessa.
  2. A diminutive of the male given names Vance, Ivan, and Evan.
    • 'Beautiful idea,' said Van as he helped Ada to heat the tank, fill the old battered bath and warm a couple of towels.1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Van

Van

  1. A large saline tectonic lake of the Armenian Highland in eastern Turkey, famous for its Chalcalburnus tarichi (syn. Alburnus tarichi) fish and the 10th century Armenian cathedral on Akhtamar Island.
  2. A province and metropolitan municipality in easternmost Turkey, partly surrounding the lake, with a Kurdish majority.
  3. A city, the capital of Van Province, Turkey, on the shore of the lake.

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Van

Van

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Vancouver.

Noun (4) capitalized: Van

Van (plural Vans)

  1. A Van cat.
  2. A Turkish Van cat.

Noun (5) capitalized: VAN

VAN (plural VANs)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of value-added network.

Proper noun (5) capitalized: VAN

VAN

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Vancouver.
    Synonyms:
    YVR

Also used as

van is also the clipping of vanguard.

van meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

van in Hindi

वैन

van in Tamil

வேன்

van in Marathi

व्हॅन

van in Urdu

وین
More languagesFewer languages
van in Bengali
ভ্যান
van in Telugu
వ్యాన్, వాన్
van in Malayalam
വാൻ
van in Kannada
ವ್ಯಾನ್
van in Punjabi
ਵੈਨ
van in Gujarati
વાન, વેન
van in Odia
ଭ୍ଯ଼ାନ୍, ଭ୍ଯ଼ାନ
van in Nepali
भ्यान, वान
van in Tagalog
van
van in Arabic
عَرَبَة نَقْل ʕarabat naql, عربيه نقل ʕarabéyya naʔl, ميكروباص mekrobass
van in Malay
van
van in Persian
وَن van
van in Thai
รถตู้ rót-dtûu, รถบรรทุก rót-ban-túk
van in Vietnamese
xe van, xe ô tô khách

Examples of van in a sentence

  • In a last-ditch effort to avoid getting "vanned," Naratto tried to put the memie back in the bottle2013, Redditor Confesses to Murder with Meme, Gets Doxed by Other Redditors, Deletes His Account and Disappears:
  • "I got fucking v&," he told Motherboard, using "v&," the slang for "vanned," or getting arrested. (At this point, the arrest had not been made public.)2016, Teen Allegedly Behind CIA, FBI Breaches: 'They're Trying to Ruin My Life.':
  • Commander X: Yep, so now you all know how I got vanned.2017, Dark Ops: An Anonymous Story, page 8:
  • Because these wings are no longer wings to fly / But merely vans to beat the air[…]1930, T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday:

All 40 example sentences with van

Synonyms of van

Forms of van

Noun
pluralvans
pluralVans
pluralVANs
Verb
third-person singular presentvans
present participlevanning
past participlevanned
pastvanned
Proper noun
alternative formVan.
alternative formVAN
alternative formVan
alternative formVAN.

Plural of van: vans

Origin of van

Short for caravan.

Shortening of vanguard.

From Cornish.

Words formed from van

Phrases with van

148 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with van

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about van

What does van mean?
Van means a covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus.
What is van in Hindi?
Van in Hindi is वैन. See Van meaning in Hindi.
How do you use van in a sentence?
In a last-ditch effort to avoid getting "vanned," Naratto tried to put the memie back in the bottle
What part of speech is van?
Van can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce van?
Van is pronounced /væn/ (UK).
What is the plural of van?
The plural of van is vans.

Words near van in the dictionary

  1. vampyroteuthids
  2. vampyrs
  3. Vamsterdam
  4. vamure
  5. vamures
  6. van
  7. van 't Hoff factor
  8. van 't Hoff factors
  9. van 't Hoff's law
  10. Van Allen
  11. Van Allen belt

Source and license

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

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