cyan
/ˈsaɪˌæn/noun, adjective
cyan is spelled C-Y-A-N. The wrong spelling people search most is cxan: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 400 of all searches for the word. Cyan is a noun meaning “An additive secondary colour midway between green and blue, evoked by wavelengths between ~490 and ~520 nm”. The plural of cyan is cyans.
How many letters and syllables are in cyan?
| Letters | 4: C-Y-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 41,154th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, cxan, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell cyan?
Cyan is spelled C-Y-A-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 399 of the searches for cyan in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is cyan?
Cyan appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th 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 cyan?
- /ˈsaɪˌæn/
- /ˈsaɪ.ən/
- /saɪˈæn/
Cyan has 2 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-cyan.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with cyan?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as cyan.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: cany.
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 cyan
- cyans plural
- more cyan comparative
- most cyan superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cyan mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An additive secondary colour midway between green and blue, evoked by wavelengths between ~490 and ~520 nm.
adjective
- 1
Of the colour cyan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate cyan?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of cyan: CMY.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cyan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cyan , turquois |
| German | Zyan, Cyan , türkis, zyan |
| Portuguese | turquesa, ciano |
| Spanish | cian |
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 cyan come from?
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κύανος (kúanos), a shade of blue variously described as similar to cornflower, copper carbonate, and lapis lazuli, Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀷𐀜 (ku-wa-no), possibly from Hittite [script needed] (kuwannan-, “a precious stone; copper; shade of blue”) - likely from Kuwanniya, all going back to kuwanna (woman), related to "queen" and γυνή. Compare modern Greek κυανός (kyanós), also used for cyan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).