Gan in Scrabble Dictionary

Valid words made from Gan

You can make 5 words from 'gan' in our Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

• 3 letters words from 'gan'
• 2 letters words from 'gan'

3 letters words from 'gan'

GAN 4

NAG 4

2 letters words from 'gan'

AG 3	AN 2
NA 2

Definitions and meaning of gan

gan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡæn/
• Rhymes: -æn

Etymology 1

Perhaps connected with Middle English gane, or possibly from Welsh geneu, Cornish ganau (“mouth”).

Alternative forms

• ganns, gans

Noun

gan (uncountable)

1. (obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) Mouth.
   • 1922 , James Joyce, Ulysses, chapter III:^[2]

     White thy fambles, red thy gan

     And thy quarrons dainty is.

     Couch a hogshead with me then.

     In the darkmans clip and kiss.

Etymology 2

Verb

gan

1. (archaic) simple past tense of gin

Etymology 3

Probably a variant of gang, from Middle English gangen, from Old English gangan (“to step; walk; go”).

Alternative forms

• gang

Verb

gan (third-person singular simple present gans, present participle gannin, simple past went, past participle gone)

1. (obsolete outside Northumbria) To go.

References

Further reading

• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [3]
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[4]
• A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896, [5]
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN

Anagrams

• AGN, ANG, GNA, NGA, nag

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Antillean Creole

Etymology

From French gant.

Noun

gan

1. glove

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Bambara

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɡã˦]

Verb

gan

1. to jump

Etymology 2

Adjective

gan

1. hot

Verb

gan

1. (transitive) to heat up

References

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

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Dharug

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ŋan/

Noun

gan

1. reptile
2. (specifically) goanna

References

• Jakelin Troy (1993) The Sydney Language, Canberra, →ISBN, page 53

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Dutch Low Saxon

Verb

gan

1. Alternative spelling of gaon

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Garo

Etymology

Borrowed from Bengali গান (gan).

Noun

gan

1. song

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Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish cen (“besides; without”), from Proto-Celtic *kina (“on this side of”); compare Middle Welsh am-gen (“otherwise”), Breton ken (“otherwise”).

Pronunciation

• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /ɡən̪ˠ/
• (stressed, Munster, Aran) IPA^(key): /ɡɑn̪ˠ/
• (stressed, Connemara, Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /ɡan̪ˠ/

Preposition

gan (plus nominative, triggers no mutation in specific references but lenition in general references)

1. without
2. not (in conjunction with a verbal noun)

Usage notes

• In standardised Irish, triggers lenition (except of d, s, t) of unmodified nouns, e.g. gan phingin (“without a penny”). Does not trigger lenition of modified nouns, e.g. gan pingin ina phóca (“without a penny in his pocket”). In the meaning ‘not’, does not trigger lenition of either a verbal noun or on the direct object of the verbal noun, e.g. gan ceannach ("not to buy"), gan pingin a shaothrú ("not to earn a penny").

Derived terms

Further reading

• "gan" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “cen”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Entries containing “gan” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “gan” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

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Japanese

Romanization

gan

1. Rōmaji transcription of がん
2. Rōmaji transcription of ガン

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Latvian

Conjunction

gan

1. both, and

Usage notes

Used in pairs: gan jauna, gan skaista "both young and beautiful"

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Mandarin

Romanization

gan

1. Nonstandard spelling of gān.
2. Nonstandard spelling of gán.
3. Nonstandard spelling of gǎn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of gàn.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ġeġn.

Preposition

gan

1. Alternative form of gain (“against”)

Etymology 2

From Old English gān.

Verb

gan

1. (Early Middle English, Northern) Alternative form of gon (“to go”)

Etymology 3

From Old English gān, ġegān.

Verb

gan

1. Alternative form of gon (“gone”)

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Northern Kurdish

Verb

gan (present stem -gê-)

1. to have sexual intercourse with somebody, to fuck somebody

Noun

gan ?

1. having sex, fucking

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Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *gān

Verb

gān

1. to go

Inflection

Derived terms

• anagān
• antgān
• bigān
• fargān

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: gâen
  • Dutch: gaan
    • Afrikaans: gaan
    • Javindo: ha, haat
    • Jersey Dutch: xân, xâne
    • Petjo: gaan, haan
  • Limburgish: gaon

Further reading

• “gān”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

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Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *gān, from Proto-Germanic *gāną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”). The verb was defective in Germanic and may only have existed in the present tense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑːn/

Verb

gān

1. to go
2. to walk
   • late 9th century, translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History

Usage notes

The expected present participle, gānde, is very rare. Instead gangende is almost always used, from the synonym gangan: Līf nis būtan gangendu sċadu ("Life is but a walking shadow").

Conjugation

Derived terms

Descendants

• Middle English: gon, gan, ga
  • English: go
    • Northumbrian: gan
  • Scots: gan, gae, ga, gang
  • Yola: goe

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Old Frisian

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *gān

Verb

gān

1. to go

Inflection

Descendants

• Saterland Frisian: geen (simple past, past participle of gunge)
• West Frisian: gean

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Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• gangan

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *gān.

Verb

gān

1. to go

Conjugation

Descendants

• Middle Low German: gân
  • Dutch Low Saxon: gan, gaon
  • German Low German: gahn
  • Plautdietsch: gone

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Scots

Alternative forms

• gae, ga, gang

Etymology

From Northern Middle English gan, from Old English gān (“to go”). Past tense supplied by Old English wenden (“to wend”).

Verb

gan (third-person singular present gans, present participle gan, past went or wett, past participle been)

1. to go

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Scottish Gaelic

Pronoun

gan

1. them (direct object)

Usage notes

• Before words beginning with b, f, m or p gam is used instead.

Related terms

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Sumerian

Romanization

gan

1. Romanization of 𒃶 (gan)

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Ternate

Etymology

From Proto-North Halmahera *gani ("louse").

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡan]

Noun

gan

1. louse

References

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh, page 31
• Gary Holton, Marian Klamer (2018) The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head

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Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English gun.

Noun

gan

1. gun

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Turkmen

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *kiān (“blood”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːn/

Noun

gan (definite accusative gany, plural ganlar)

1. blood

Declension

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Vietnamese

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *t-kaːn, from Old Chinese 肝 (OC *s.kˤa[r]) (SV: can). Cognate with Chut [Rục] təkaːn¹ ("bold").

Displaced native lòm, now only found in the compounds đỏ lòm and chua lòm.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ɣaːn˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ɣaːŋ˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ɣaːŋ˧˧]

Noun

(classifier lá) gan

1. (anatomy) a liver
2. (figuratively) audacity; gall; balls

Derived terms

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Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɡan]

Noun

gan (nominative plural gans)

1. (male or female) goose

Declension

Hypernyms

• böd
• nim

Hyponyms

• ganil

Derived terms

See also

• barnig (“brant goose, brent goose”), Branta bernicla

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Welsh

Etymology 1

From Middle Welsh cant, from Proto-Celtic *kanta. Cognate with Breton gant and Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “against; downwards”).

Pronunciation

• (North Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ɡan/
  • (North Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ɡɪn/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ɡan/

Preposition

gan (triggers soft mutation)

1. with

   Synonyms: â, gyda, efo

2. (North Wales) used with bod to indicate possession

   Synonym: (South Wales) gyda

3. by (after a passive construction)

4. by (authorship)
5. used with verbal noun to indicate an action simultaneous with that of the main verb, while, whilst
   • King, Gareth (1993) Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Grammars), London and New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 131:

Inflection

Usage notes

See [6] for more information.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡan/

Adjective

gan

1. Soft mutation of can.

Noun

gan

1. Soft mutation of can.

Mutation

References

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Wolof

Pronunciation

Noun

gan (definite form gan gi)

1. stranger
2. guest

Source: wiktionary.org

• (dialect) to go.
  (source: Collins Scrabble Dictionary)