What does "man" mean?
An adult male human.
Man
/mæn/ adj, intj, name, noun, pron, verb, slang
adj, intj, name, noun, pron, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: An adult male human.
- Grammar: man is listed as adj, intj, name, noun, pron, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: adult male, gentleman, humanity, humankind.
- Useful contrasts: epicene, amazon, amazons.
- Usage evidence: When I left the train station, I saw a man.
How to use "man"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "man" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "man" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "man" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "man" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "man" is acting as adj, intj, name, noun, pron, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "adult male" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "man", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An adult male human.
"The show is especially popular with middle-aged men."
- 2 Initialism of Metropolitan Area Network, a large computer network usually spanning a city. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 3 any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage wordnet
- 4 An adult male human.; All human males collectively: mankind. collective
"Unsurprisingly, if modern man is a sort of camera, modern woman is a picture."
- 5 all of the living human inhabitants of the earth wordnet
Show 28 more definitions
- 6 An adult male human.; An adult male who belongs to a particular group: an employee, a representative, etc.
"When President Roosevelt goes walking in the country about Washington he is always accompanied by two Secret Service men."
- 7 game equipment consisting of an object used in playing certain board games wordnet
- 8 An adult male human.; An adult male who has, to an eminent degree, qualities considered masculine, such as strength, integrity, and devotion to family; a mensch.
"He’s more a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house[…]"
- 9 an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman) wordnet
- 10 An adult male human.; An adult male servant.
- 11 a male person who plays a significant role (husband or lover or boyfriend) in the life of a particular woman wordnet
- 12 A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult. dated, formal
"every man for himself"
- 13 an adult male person who has a manly character (virile and courageous competent) wordnet
- 14 A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.; All humans collectively; mankind, humankind, humanity. collective, dated, formal
"How did God create man? God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures."
- 15 the generic use of the word to refer to any human being wordnet
- 16 A member of the genus Homo, especially of the species Homo sapiens.
"The evidence suggests that close relatives of early man, in lineages that later became extinct, also were able to use tools."
- 17 a male subordinate wordnet
- 18 A male person, usually an adult; a (generally adult male) sentient being, whether human, supernatural, elf, alien, etc.
"For God is holde a ryghtwys man."
- 19 a manservant who acts as a personal attendant to their employer wordnet
- 20 Manliness; the quality or state of being manly. obsolete, uncommon, uncountable
"Methought he bare himself in such a fashion, / So full of man, and sweetness in his carriage, /[…]"
- 21 a man who serves in the armed forces; a member of a military force wordnet
- 22 A husband.
"I pronounce that they are man and wife."
- 23 A male lover; a boyfriend.
"Stay away from my man!"
- 24 Used as the last element of a compound.; A male enthusiast or devotee; a male who is very fond of or devoted to a specified kind of thing.
"Some people prefer apple pie, but me, I’m a cherry pie man."
- 25 Used as the last element of a compound.; A person, usually male, who has duties or skills associated with a specified thing.
"I wanted to be a guitar man on a road tour, but instead I’m a flag man on a road crew."
- 26 A person, usually male, who can fulfill one's requirements with regard to a specified matter.
""She's the man for the job.""
- 27 A vassal; a subject. historical
"Like master, like man."
- 28 A piece or token used in board games such as backgammon.
"The white men are always put on that side of the board which commences by row I, and the black men are placed opposite."
- 29 One of the player's chances to play, lost when the player's character dies or when certain mistakes are made.
"Most machines are set to award you an extra man after 8000 points, and then after each additional 14.000 points."
- 30 A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste.
"Come on, man, we've got no time to lose!"
- 31 A term of familiar address usually reserved for other adult males. It works both with ones whose name is known and ones whose name is unknown.
"Near-synonyms: my man, bro, brother"
- 32 A player on whom another is playing, with the intent of limiting their attacking impact.
"2018 Dinny Navaratnam, Andrews will learn from experience: Fagan Brisbane Lions, 30 July 2018. Accessed 6 August 2018. "It was a brutal return to football for Brisbane Lions defender Harris Andrews as his man Tom Hawkins booted seven goals but Lions Coach Chris Fagan said the team's defensive faults, rather than the backman's, allowed the big Cat to dominate.""
- 33 A soldier below the rank of a non-commissioned officer. slang
Verb
- 1 To supply (something) with staff or crew (of either sex). transitive
"The ship was manned with a small crew."
- 2 provide with workers wordnet
- 3 To take up position in order to operate (something). transitive
"Man the machine guns!"
- 4 take charge of a certain job; occupy a certain work place wordnet
- 5 To brace (oneself), to fortify or steel (oneself) in a manly way. (Compare man up.) dated, possibly, reflexive
"“To stay open, the senior enlisted leader of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Forward said he needed people to cover security,” Duncan wrote. “Personnel Recovery Task Force (PRTF) Pilots, maintainers and support personnel donned their vests, helmets and M-4 rifles and manned defensive fighting positions.”"
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 To wait on, attend to or escort. obsolete, transitive
- 7 To accustom (a raptor or other type of bird) to the presence of people. obsolete, transitive
Adjective
- 1 Synonym of manly. (Only used in man enough.) not-comparable
Intj
- 1 Used to place emphasis upon something or someone; sometimes, but not always, when actually addressing a man.
"Man, that was a great catch!"
Pronoun
- 1 Used to refer to oneself or one's group: I, we; construed in the third person. Multicultural-London-English, personal, pronoun, slang
"Man's got some new creps."
- 2 You; construed in the third person. Multicultural-London-English, personal, pronoun, slang
"Man thinks I was born yesterday."
- 3 Any person, one Multicultural-London-English, indefinite, personal, pronoun, slang
"Man don't care."
Proper Noun
- 1 A command used to display help pages in Unix and Unix-like operating systems.
- 2 The genus Homo.
- 3 The Isle of Man; an island and crown dependency of the United Kingdom in the Irish Sea.
"And therefore the Bishop and clergy of Man were totally powerless to resist the alteration of doctrinal articles and rites of worship which Earls Edward and Henry, between 1521 and 1594, following the edicts of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, introduced into the Isle of Man."
- 4 Abbreviation of Manitoba: a province of Canada. abbreviation, alt-of
- 5 A surname from Chinese.
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 A surname from Chinese.
- 7 Abbreviation of Manchester: a city in England (especially in football). abbreviation, alt-of
- 8 A town in Logan County, West Virginia, United States.
- 9 A surname
- 10 Abbreviation of Manitoba: a province of Canada. abbreviation, alt-of
- 11 Humankind in general. poetic
"The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.[…]The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared."
- 12 A city and department in the Ivory Coast.
- 13 A village in Palghar district, Maharashtra, India.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"When I left the train station, I saw a man."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "man"?
Common synonyms include: adult male, gentleman, humanity, humankind, humans, a man.
How do you use "man" in a sentence?
When I left the train station, I saw a man.
How do you pronounce "man"?
Pronounced /mæn/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of Manu. Cognates Cognate with Yola man (“man; husband”), North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon (“man; husband”), Saterland Frisian Mon (“man; husband”), West Frisian man (“man; husband”), Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn (“man; husband”), Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn (“man; husband”), Cimbrian man, mann, månn (“man; husband”), Dutch man (“man; husband”), German, German Low German, and Luxembourgish Mann (“man; husband”), Mòcheno mònn (“man”), Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn (“man; husband”), Yiddish מאַן (man, “man”), Danish mand (“man; husband”), Faroese and Icelandic maður (“male, man; husband”), Norn and Norwegian Bokmål mann (“man; husband”), Norwegian Nynorsk mann, mainnj (“man; husband”), Swedish man (“man; husband”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna, “man; human”); also Latin humanus (“human”), Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž, “husband; man”), Bulgarian мъж (mǎž, “man; husband”), Czech and Slovak muž (“man; husband”), Macedonian маж (maž, “man; husband”), Polish mąż (“man; husband”), Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž (“man; husband”), Slovene mož (“man; husband”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”), Sanskrit मनु (manu, “intelligent, thinking, wise”), मनुस् (manus, “man”).
Etymology 2
From Middle English mannen, from Old English mannian, ġemannian (“to man, supply with men, populate, garrison”), from mann (“human being, man”). Cognates * Dutch bemannen (“to man”) * German bemannen (“to man”) * Danish bemande (“to man”) * Swedish bemanna (“to man”) * Icelandic manna (“to supply with men, to man”)
Etymology 3
Clipping of manual.
Etymology 4
From man.
Etymology 5
From Old Irish Mana, from Proto-Celtic *moniyos, from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to tower, stand out”).
Etymology 6
From Cantonese 文 (man⁴).
Etymology 7
From Cantonese 萬／万 (maan⁶) or 文 (man⁴).
Etymology 8
Clipping of Manchester.
Etymology 9
Various other places.