merlan
French, noun/mɛʁ.lɑ̃/
merlan is spelled M-E-R-L-A-N (6 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written French, the 64,346th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Merlan is a French masculine noun meaning “whiting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Espèce de poisson argenté de 30 à 50 cm vivant dans l’Atlantique nord à proximité des côtes d’Europe…”.
What does merlan mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinewhiting
- 2
masculinehairdresser
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Espèce de poisson argenté de 30 à 50 cm vivant dans l’Atlantique nord à proximité des côtes d’Europe occidentale, de nom scientifique Merlangius merlangus. 2. Merlan bleu. 3. Coiffeur, perruquier. 4. Pièce de viande de bœuf, très tendre.
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 merlan
- merlans plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce merlan?
- /mɛʁ.lɑ̃/
- \mɛʁ.lɑ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to merlan
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is merlan in French?
merlan appears about once in every 4 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).