clan
/klæn/noun
clan is spelled C-L-A-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, clan means “A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of clan is clans.
How many letters and syllables are in clan?
| Letters | 4: C-L-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.3 times per million words; the 7,445th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 clan?
Clan appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th 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 clan?
- US /klæn/
- British /klan/
- /klɛn/
Clan has one syllable (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: En-us-clan.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with clan
Sounds like: Klan (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with clan?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as clan from its last stressed vowel (/æn/):
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 clan
- clans plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does clan mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.
- 2
ScotlandA traditional social group of families in the Scottish Highlands having a common hereditary chieftain.
- 3
Any group defined by family ties with some sort of political unity.
Holonym: nation
- 4
traditional main matrilineal subunit of the Minangkabau people (suku) esp. in Negeri Sembilan
- 5
A group of players who habitually play on the same team in multiplayer games.
- 6
A group of badgers.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Clan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense group having common ancestor:
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 clan come from?
Borrowed from Irish clann (“offspring, children of the family”) and Scottish Gaelic clann, both from Old Irish cland, borrowed from Old Welsh plant, itself borrowed from Latin planta (“shoot, offspring”). Doublet of plant and planta.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).