Fanwank
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Explanations invented by fans (of a film franchise, television series, etc.) to gloss over mistakes in continuity. derogatory, slang, uncountable
"Its just fanwank with no support in the lore - and not even good fanwank. As you said yourself, Malal does not exist in 40k - and he's never existed. And no, that's not a joke in the vein of 'I've never seen a stealth aircraft' either."
- 2 Elements added to a television program or similar entertainment that appeal to avid fans but are of little interest to outsiders. slang, uncountable
"Fan-producers seem to have integrated 'fanwank' into the new series, but not in a way that reproduces the show's 1980s history, or alienates non-fans."
- 1 Of fans, to invent explanations to gloss over mistakes in continuity. slang
"See above on Charlie's Angels. They never seemed to have lives of any sort and weren't interesting to me; they always seemed like soft porn for the guys, but a lot of girls fanwanked and fanficced them into more, so I guess they could qualify."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Its just fanwank with no support in the lore - and not even good fanwank. As you said yourself, Malal does not exist in 40k - and he's never existed. And no, that's not a joke in the vein of 'I've never seen a stealth aircraft' either."
Etymology
From fan + wank. See fan (“fanatic, enthusiast”). British writer Craig Hinton claimed to have coined the term in the context of Doctor Who fandom.
More for "fanwank"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.