vane
/veɪn/noun
vane is spelled V-A-N-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,918th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “vain vs vane” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, vane means “A weather vane” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of vane is vanes.
How many letters and syllables are in vane?
| Letters | 4: V-A-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words; the 28,918th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people 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); 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 common is vane?
Vane appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,918th 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 vane?
- US /veɪn/
- /ven/
- /veːn/
Vane 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-vane.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with vane
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: vain, vein (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with vane?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as vane from its last stressed vowel (/eɪn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: nave, vena, aven.
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 vane
- vanes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does vane mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A weather vane.
- 2
Any of several usually relatively thin, rigid, flat, or sometimes curved surfaces radially mounted along an axis, as a blade in a turbine or a sail on a windmill, that is turned by or used to turn a fluid.
- 3
The flattened, web-like part of a feather, consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft.
- 4
A sight on a sextant or compass.
- 5
One of the metal guidance or stabilizing fins attached to the tail of a bomb or other missile.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Vane in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pale , étendard, vexillum , ailette |
| German | Flügel, Schaufel, Drehflügel , Fahne, Federfahne, Vexillum |
| Portuguese | aleta , vexilo |
| Spanish | aspa , vexilo |
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 vane come from?
From Middle English vane, Southern Middle English variant of fane, from Old English fana (“cloth, banner, flag”), from Proto-West Germanic *fanō, from Proto-Germanic *fanô, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“something woven; weave; tissue; fabric; cloth”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).