noun
- A hand-held device consisting of concertinaed material, or slats of material, gathered together at one end, that may be opened out into the shape of a sector of a circle and waved back and forth in order to move air towards oneself and cool oneself.
- An electrical or mechanical device for moving air, used for cooling people, machinery, etc.
- The action of fanning; agitation of the air.
- Anything resembling a hand-held fan in shape, e.g., a peacock’s tail.
- An instrument for winnowing grain, by moving which the grain is tossed and agitated, and the chaff is separated and blown away.
- A small vane or sail, used to keep the large sails of a smock mill always in the direction of the wind.
- A section of a tree having a finite number of branches
verb
- To blow air on (something) by means of a fan (hand-held, mechanical or electrical) or otherwise.
- To slap (a behind, especially).
- (usually to fan out) To move or spread in multiple directions from one point, in the shape of a hand-held fan.
- To dispel by waving a hand-held fan.
- To perform a maneuver that involves flicking the top rear of an old-style gun.
- (metaphoric) To invigorate, like flames when fanned.
- To winnow grain.
Pronunciation
About this word
Fan is a 2-meaning word in English. Shorter words have fewer anagrams.
This page shows the definition of fan along with every other word you can make from its letters. Click the link above to see all anagrams and shorter words formed from the same set of letters.
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Words in word games
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Scrabble
In Scrabble, the valid word lists are the Official Tournament and Club Word List (OTCWL/NWL) for North America and the Collins Scrabble Words (CSW) for international play. Our dictionary covers most words in both lists, but some proper nouns, abbreviations, and offensive terms may differ.
Wordle
Wordle uses its own curated word list that is smaller than the full Scrabble dictionary. If Fan appears here, it may or may not be a valid Wordle answer — but it is a real English word regardless.
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