What does "rattan" mean?

Any of several species of climbing palm of the genus Calamus.

What is a synonym for "rattan"?

Common synonyms include: calamus rotang, cane, club, cudgel, paddle, ratan.

//ɹəˈtæn// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any of several species of climbing palm of the genus Calamus. countable, uncountable
2
a switch made from the stems of the rattan palms wordnet
3
The plant used as a material for making furniture, baskets etc. uncountable
"It took Elwood an hour to find Mr. Gladwell, who sat in a big rattan chair at the edge of the sweet potato fields."
4
the stem of various climbing palms of the genus Calamus and related genera used to make wickerwork and furniture and canes wordnet
5
A cane made from this material. broadly, countable, uncountable
"He who first acts as striker asks the other how many blows of the rattan he will bear on his forearm without crying out."

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6
climbing palm of Sri Lanka and southern India remarkable for the great length of the stems which are used for malacca canes wordnet

Verb

1
To beat with a rattan cane. transitive
"Meanwhile Captain Colville rattaned Pearson very severely […]"

Proper Noun

"Pretty much any thin, pliable material can be used to make wicker furniture, but many prefer those made with willow or rattan to plastic."

Borrowed from Malay rotan.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.