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PlainSpell

scan

/skæn/verb, noun

scan is spelled S-C-A-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, scan means “To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in scan?

Letters4: S-C-A-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,347th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 scan?

Scan appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th 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 scan?

  • US /skæn/
  • British /skan/
  • /skɛn/

Scan 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-scan.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with scan?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as scan 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 scan

  • scans present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • scanning participle, present
  • scanned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does scan mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.

    She scanned the passage carefully but could not find what she was looking for.

  2. 2

    To inspect, analyse or go over, often to find something.

    to scan the hard drive for errors

  3. 3

    To look about for; to look over quickly.

  4. 4

    To perform lexical analysis; to tokenize.

  5. 5

    To create an image of something with the use of a scanner.

    to scan a photograph

  6. 6

    To read with an electronic device.

    to scan a barcode

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo mount by steps; to go through with step by step.

  8. 8

    To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.

noun

  1. 1

    Of written things, a careful reading.

  2. 2

    Of written things, a cursory reading: a skim.

  3. 3

    An instance of scanning.

    The operators vacated the room during the scan.

  4. 4

    The result or output of a scanning process.

    The doctors looked at the scans and made a diagnosis.

  5. 5

    A higher-order function that applies a binary operation to a sequence of values, starting with an accumulator, and returns a new sequence with the results.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Scan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchscanner, fouiller (to examine sequentially, carefully, or…), numériser, scannériser (create an image of something with the use of a…), scander (to read or mark so as to show a specific metre), scan (result or output of a scanning process)
Portuguesevarrer (to examine sequentially, carefully, or…), escanear, digitalizar (create an image of something with the use of a…), escandir (to read or mark so as to show a specific metre), varredura (instance of scanning)
Spanishescrutar (to examine sequentially, carefully, or…), escanear (create an image of something with the use of a…), escandir (to read or mark so as to show a specific metre), revisar (computing: to inspect, analyse or go over…)
Germanscannen, abtasten, einscannen (create an image of something with the use of a…), skandieren (to read or mark so as to show a specific metre), Abtastung, Scan (instance of scanning)

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 scan come from?

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“to climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after scan