pan
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
A wide, flat receptacle used around the house.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
panIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpæn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Greek mythology
Greek god of nature, often visualized as half goat and half man playing pipes. His Roman counterpart is Faunus.
A wide, flat receptacle used around the house, especially for cooking.
A cylindrical receptacle about as tall as it is wide, with one long handle, usually made of metal, used for cooking in the home.
The contents of such a receptacle.
Shallow container made of metal
Cooking utensil consisting of a wide metal vessel
verb
Wash dirt in a pan to separate out the precious minerals
transitive
To wash in a pan (of earth, sand etc. when searching for gold).
intransitiveof a camera
To turn horizontally.
transitiveinformalof a contest
To beat one's opposition convincingly.
transitive
To disparage; to belittle; to put down; to harshly criticize, especially a work (book, movie, etc.)
To join or fit together; to unite.
adjective
informal
Pansexual or panromantic.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (Greek mythology) Greek god of nature, often visualized as half goat and half man playing pipes. His Roman counterpart is Faunus.
Used this way, pan is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.