WAN Synonyms: 39 Similar and Opposite Words

wan

adjective

ˈwän

Definition of wan next

as in pallid

lacking a healthy skin color she looks a little wan after all that tiring work

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of wan Evans managed both to placate the money men at Gulf & Western, who wanted to sell Paramount because of its wan revenue, and become a peer of Hollywood's rambunctious talent. —

cleveland, 28 Oct. 2019 What seemed inventive and clever in the confines of a small off-Broadway theater feels utterly wan in its current incarnation. —

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Oct. 2019 Our family just discovered Gobi Manchurian, and for anyone who considers cauliflower a wan version of broccoli, try this and banish thoughts of soggy vegetables from your mind. —

BostonGlobe.com, 30 Mar. 2018 In spite of the lovingly detailed suburban ambience, interiors, gardens and clothes, the atmosphere feels torqued beyond time and history into a fairy tale theater of desire and wan hope. —

Marina Warner, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2018 See All Example Sentences for wan

Recent Examples of Synonyms for wan

Adjective

Opponents of the proposal want the county to consider different locations for the park site, arguing the project may harm a variety of native species to the area, including the western spadefoot toad and pallid bats.

— Hannah Elsmore, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 May 2026
While disrupting the business of an American multinational company may seem a pallid response to the destruction of an Iranian primary school where more than a hundred children were killed, such asymmetric attacks in the physical and digital realms have been a feature of this conflict.

— Sue Halpern, New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2026