Yan
name, num ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One. Cumbria, Northumbria
- 2 One in Cumbrian sheep counting rhyme. Cumbria
- 1 An ancient march, duchy, and kingdom of northeastern China during the Zhou dynasty. historical
"It is Lady Zhao who concocts a devious plan to unite the populace behind the emperor by arranging a bogus assassination attempt that will justify his invasion of the neighboring kingdom of Yan. The climactic showdown with Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi), the fearless professional killer she recruits for the job (and with whom she falls deeply in love) takes place at an ambassadorial ceremony where he appears in disguise and presents Ying Zheng with a box containing the severed head of an enemy general and a map with a concealed sword."
- 2 A male given name, equivalent to English John.
- 3 The realm of this land under later imperial Chinese dynasties. historical
- 4 A transliteration of the Belarusian, Russian, or Ukrainian male given name Ян (Jan)
- 5 A mountain chain in northeastern China.
Example
More examples"As Yan Yuan pointed out, "proper moral cultivation could begin from any point on the moral map, not just the mean position"."
Etymology
Along with ane and yen, a Cumbrian and Northumbrian form of one, from the Old English ān. An example is "yan, twee, tree, fower" for "one, two, three, four".
From Brythonic numerals, with influence from Old English ān or modern Northern English yan or Northern English yen.
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 燕 (Yān).
Related phrases
More for "yan"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.