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# wan

«wan» in Mova's school dictionary: **pale and looking ill or tired** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (wan, wanner, wannest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Wan means pale and looking ill or tired. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#m1)

2) A wan smile is a weak, tired or sad smile. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#m2)

3) (old, poetic) Wan light is faint and weak. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#m3)

4) (Mandarin, pinyin) wǎn can mean evening or late, and wàn means ten thousand; these are not English words. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In stories it shows a character is unwell, worried or exhausted. Phrases: a wan face, a wan smile, look wan.

### examples

- She looked wan after a week with flu. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#x1)
- He gave a wan smile and said he was fine. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#x2)
- The wan winter sun barely warmed the garden. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#x3)
- Your face is so wan — sit down and have some water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#x4)
- The patient's cheeks were wan and thin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#x5)
- In Mandarin, "wǎn shàng hǎo" means good evening. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/#x6)

### note

Literary word; everyday words are pale, pasty. Rhymes with "con". Do not confuse with want or won.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wan» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wan/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.