fan

CEFRA2

/fæn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person who strongly likes a sport, performer, or activity.

  2. 02

    noun

    A machine or object that moves air.

Examples

  • There is a fan on the desk.

  • Tim is a huge fan of satirical comedy.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [feən]
  • /faːn/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings
  1. An electrical or mechanical device for moving air, used for cooling people, machinery, etc.

  2. The action of fanning; agitation of the air.

  3. 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.

More examples

In context
  • He didn't switch on the fan because the temperature was 15 degrees Celsius.

  • I attempted to fan the disagreeable odour out of the room.

  • We enjoyed standing at the edge of the cliff, being fanned by the wind.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The devoted blank stood in the rain for hours to see her favorite singer.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Inherited from Middle English fan, inherited from Old English fann (“a winnowing, fan”), derived from Latin vannus (“fan for winnowing grain”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”). Cognates *Latin ventus (“wind”) *Dutch wan (“winnowing basket”) *German Wanne (“winnowing basket”) *Swedish vanna (“a fan for winnowing”) *Old English windwian (“to fan, winnow”). More at winnow.