ran
/ɹæn/noun, verb
ran is spelled R-A-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 74 times per million words in written English, the 1,427th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Ran, the name). As a noun, ran means “Yarns coiled on a spun-yarn winch” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ran?
| Letters | 3: R-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 74 times per million words; the 1,427th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 ran?
Ran appears 74 times per million words in written English, the 1,427th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Ran, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ran?
- UK /ɹæn/
- British /ɹan/
- /ɾan/
Ran 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-ran.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-ran.wav, En-au-RAN.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with ran?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ran from its last stressed vowel (/æn/, 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).
What does ran mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Yarns coiled on a spun-yarn winch.
verb
- 1
simple past of run
- 2
simple past of rin
- 3
colloquialnonstandardpast participle of run
noun
- 1
Initialism of radio access network (“the underlying physical connection method for a radio based communication network”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).