pan
/pæn/noun, verb, adjective
pan is spelled P-A-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,683rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pan means “A wide, flat receptacle used around the house, especially for cooking” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pan is pans; Wiktionary also lists pen (humorous).
How many letters and syllables are in pan?
| Letters | 3: P-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 25 times per million words; the 3,683rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pan?
Pan appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,683rd 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 pan?
- UK /pæn/
- British /pan/
- US /pæn/
Pan 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-pan.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pan
Sounds like: panne (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: paan.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with pan?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pan from its last stressed vowel (/æn/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: nap.
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 pan
- pans plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pen plural
- panning participle, present
- panned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pan mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A wide, flat receptacle used around the house, especially for cooking.
- 2
The contents of such a receptacle.
- 3
A cylindrical receptacle about as tall as it is wide, with one long handle, usually made of metal, used for cooking in the home.
- 4
IrelandA deep plastic receptacle, used for washing or food preparation; a basin.
- 5
A wide receptacle in which gold grains are separated from gravel by washing the contents with water.
- 6
A pond or lake, considered as the expanse of land upon which the water sits.
- 7
A dry lake or playa, especially a salt flat.
- 8
Synonym of playa lake: a temporary pond or lake in a playa.
- 9
A sequence in a film in which the camera pans over an area.
- 10
A part; a portion.
- 11
The distance comprised between the angle of the epaule and the flanked angle.
- 12
A leaf of gold or silver.
- 13
Alternative form of paan.
- 14
informalClipping of pantograph.
verb
- 1
To wash in a pan (of earth, sand etc. when searching for gold).
- 2
To disparage; to belittle; to put down; to harshly criticize, especially a work (book, movie, etc.)
- 3
To turn out well; to be successful.
- 4
informalTo beat one's opposition convincingly.
- 5
(of a camera) To turn horizontally.
- 6
To move the camera lens angle while continuing to expose the film, enabling a contiguous view and enrichment of context. In still-photography large-group portraits the film usually remains on a horizontal fixed plane as the lens and/or the film holder moves to expose the film laterally. The resulting image may extend a short distance laterally or as great as 360° from the point where the film firs
- 7
To shift an image relative to the display window without changing the viewing scale.
- 8
To spread a sound signal into a new stereo or multichannel sound field, typically giving the impression that it is moving across the sound stage.
- 9
(of a sound) To move in the multichannel sound field.
- 10
To join or fit together; to unite.
31 May 1884, Leeds Mercury Pan it down–press an article into its proper place
adjective
- 1
informalPansexual or panromantic.
Another anonymous pansexual disclosed, "Sometimes I feel really left out because I'm pan. […] "
noun
- 1
Ellipsis of Peter Pan.
noun
- 1
Acronym of personal area network.
- 2
Acronym of primary account number.
- 3
Initialism of peroxyacetyl nitrate.
- 4
Initialism of phenylacetonitrile.
- 5
Initialism of polyacrylonitrile.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | pan- , Pfanne , schwenken |
| Portuguese | pan- , caçarola, frigideira , bateia , batear |
| Spanish | pan- , sartén , poner por los suelos, destrozar, poner a parir, dejar por los suelos |
| French | poêle , faire un panoramique , miche de pain , cuvette |
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 pan come from?
From Middle English panne, from Old English panne, from Proto-West Germanic *pannā, from Proto-Germanic *pannǭ. Further origin uncertain. Alois Walde firstly suggests that it might be from Late Latin panna, from Latin patina (“broad, shallow dish, pan, stewpan”), from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē, “kind of flat dish”), which is probably from Pre-Greek.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).