Roan
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An animal (such as a horse) that has a coat of a dark base color with individual white hairs mixed in.
- 2 Archaic form of rowan (“kind of tree”). alt-of, archaic
- 3 a horse having a brownish coat thickly sprinkled with white or gray wordnet
- 4 The color of such an animal.
- 5 a soft sheepskin leather that is colored and finished to resemble morocco; used in bookbinding wordnet
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- 6 A kind of leather used for slippers, bookbinding, etc., made from sheepskin, tanned with sumac and colored to imitate ungrained morocco.
"Roan, a kind of leather used for shoes, slippers, and common bookbinding; prepared from sheep skins by tanning with sumach."
- 1 Having a coat of a dark base color with individual white hairs mixed in. especially, not-comparable
- 2 Made of roan (kind of leather). not-comparable
"roan binding"
- 1 (used of especially horses) having a brownish coat thickly sprinkled with white or grey wordnet
- 1 A surname.
"Mrs. Roan was 26 years old, in good health, kept her house, and was faithful in the discharge of her duties as a wife."
Example
More examples"Aside from giving elephants and lions more room to roam, it could help speed the recovery of the sable and roan antelope, two severely endangered species that have nearly disappeared from Kruger."
Etymology
From Middle French roan, probably from Spanish roano, from Old Spanish raudano, itself probably of Germanic origin (compare Gothic *𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (*raudan), accusative of 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (rauþs, “red”). Compare rowan.
Related phrases
More for "roan"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.