# Aryan

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈɛəɹi.ən/ · frequency rank #22,000

## Definitions
1. A member of a race defined variously as comprising people of Germanic descent, in the narrowest sense, or all non-Jewish Caucasians, in the broadest sense
2. A person of Caucasian (white / Northern European) ethnicity; a white non-Jew.
3. A Caucasian racist, often one who is an Aryan in the first sense.
4. An Indo-European, a Proto-Indo-European.
5. An Indo-Iranian.
6. An Indo-Aryan.
7. A subdivision of the Caucasian racial and linguistic grouping, when that grouping is defined as consisting of Aryans, Semites, and Hamites.

## Etymology
Apparently originally from Classical Latin Ariānus, from Ariāna, probably after German Arier, arisch and subsequently reinforced by related Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) and + -n. The Sanskrit word is from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas (the original Indo-Iranian autonym). 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". The original meaning of the Indo-Iranian autonym and its possible Indo-European origin/cognates are disputed (see the Wikipedia article for further details).
The same Proto-Indo-Iranian root is the ultimate source of the country name Iran.

## Easily confused with
- **Ayn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aryan-vs-ayn)
- **aya** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aryan-vs-aya)
- **Asian** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aryan-vs-asian)
- **ASEAN** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aryan-vs-asean)
- **avian** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aryan-vs-avian)
- **Aslan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aryan-vs-aslan)
- **ara** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ara-vs-aryan)
- **ARN** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/arn-vs-aryan)
- **area** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/area-vs-aryan)
- **Alan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/alan-vs-aryan)
- **Arab** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/arab-vs-aryan)
- **aria** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aria-vs-aryan)
- **Arya** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/arya-vs-aryan)
- **Aron** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aron-vs-aryan)
- **Anya** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/anya-vs-aryan)
- **Arun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/arun-vs-aryan)
- **Aram** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aram-vs-aryan)
- **aren** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/aren-vs-aryan)
- **array** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/array-vs-aryan)
- **Allan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/allan-vs-aryan)

## Common misspellings (7)
`arayn`, `arryan`, `aryann`, `aryna`, `aryyan`, `ayran`, `rayan`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/aryan