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Aryan

UK /ˈɛəɹi.ən/noun, adjective

Aryan is spelled A-R-Y-A-N: 5 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, Aryan means “A person of Caucasian (white / Northern European) ethnicity; A white non-Jew, in the broadest sense, or more narrowly defined as people of Germanic…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of Aryan is Aryans.

How many letters and syllables are in Aryan?

Letters5: A-R-Y-A-N
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.6 times per million words; the 22,073rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is Aryan?

Aryan appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce Aryan?

  • UK /ˈɛəɹi.ən/
  • UK /ˈɛəjən/
  • UK /ˈɑːɹi.ən/

Aryan has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Aryan.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with Aryan

Sounds like: Arian (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with Aryan?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as Aryan from its last stressed vowel (/ɛəɹiən/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of Aryan

  • Aryans plural
  • Arian
  • more Aryan comparative
  • most Aryan superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does Aryan mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    informalA person of Caucasian (white / Northern European) ethnicity; A white non-Jew, in the broadest sense, or more narrowly defined as people of Germanic descent.

    This short sketch of the changes that take place among those races that are only the depositories of a culture also furnishes a picture of the development and the activity and the disappearance of those who are the true founders of culture

  2. 2

    USinformalA Caucasian racist, often one who is an Aryan in the first sense.

  3. 3

    datedAn Indo-European, a Proto-Indo-European.

  4. 4

    datedA subdivision of the Caucasian racial and linguistic grouping, when that grouping is defined as consisting of Aryans, Semites, and Hamites.

  5. 5

    datedSynonym of Indo-Iranian (“member of any peoples speaking an Indo-Iranian language.”)

  6. 6

    datedAn Indo-Aryan.

adjective

  1. 1

    Pertaining, in racial theories, to the (alleged) Aryan master race.

    Look at the ravages from which our people are suffering daily as a result of being contaminated with Jewish blood. Bear in mind the fact that this poisonous contamination can be eliminated from the national body only after centuries, or per

  2. 2

    informalPertaining to the Caucasian ethnicity.

  3. 3

    USinformalPertaining to Caucasian racists or their organisations, theories, etc.

  4. 4

    datedOf or pertaining to Indo-European peoples, cultures and languages.

  5. 5

    datedOf or pertaining to Indo-Iranian peoples, cultures, and languages.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Aryan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
FrenchAryen, Aryenne (a member of the supposed Aryan race), Indo-Européen (an Indo-European), aryen, aryaque (pertaining to the (alleged) Aryan master race), arien (used primarily by neo-Nazis: pertaining to the…)
GermanArier, Arierin (a member of the supposed Aryan race), arisch (pertaining to the (alleged) Aryan master race)
Portugueseariano, ário (a member of the supposed Aryan race)
Spanishario, aria (a member of the supposed Aryan race)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does Aryan come from?

Originally from Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) and + -n. The Sanskrit word is an autonym originally from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas (see there for more). Borrowed into English in the 19th century, at first as a term for the Indo-Iranian languages, and later partly extended to the Indo-European languages and peoples following a theory by Friedrich Schlegel that connected the Indo-Iranian words arya/ā́rya with German Ehre (“honor”) and some older Germanic names, thus assuming that it was the original Indo-European autonym meaning "the honorable people".

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after Aryan