koan
French, noun/ko.an/
koan is a French masculine noun meaning “koan” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Question ou énigme absurde et aporétique posée par un maître zen à un disciple, destinée à le faire…”.
What does koan mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinekoan
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Question ou énigme absurde et aporétique posée par un maître zen à un disciple, destinée à le faire progresser sur la voie de l’éveil en l’obligeant à délaisser le raisonnement et toute considération intellectuelle.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of koan
- koans plural
- kôan
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce koan?
- /ko.an/
- \ko.an\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is koan in French?
koan appears about once in every 17 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).