van
French, noun/vɑ̃/
van is spelled V-A-N (3 letters) and appears 48 times per million words in written French, the 1,739th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Van is a French masculine noun meaning “a winnowing basket” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Instrument d’osier, en forme de coquille, qui a deux anses, et dont on se sert pour secouer le grain, les…”.
What does van mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinea winnowing basket
noun
- 1
masculinea horse trailer
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Instrument d’osier, en forme de coquille, qui a deux anses, et dont on se sert pour secouer le grain, les impuretés, afin de séparer la paille d’avec le bon grain. 2. Instrument identique au précédent, mais construit en matériaux étanches et utilisé lors d’opérations de baquetage.
noun: 1. Remorque destinée au transport des chevaux. 2. Camionnette ; fourgonnette ; fourgon. 3. Semi-remorque.
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 van
- vans plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce van?
- /vɑ̃/
- \vɑ̃\
- \van\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to van
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is van in French?
van appears 48 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).