clan

Borrowed from Irish clann (“offspring, children of the family”) and Scottish Gaelic clann, both from Old Irish cland, borrowed from Old Welsh plant, itself borrowed from Latin planta (“shoot, offspring”). Doublet of plant and planta.

• IPA^(key): /klæn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: Klan
• Rhymes: -æn

clan (plural clans)

1. (anthropology) A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.

   Hyponym: descent group

   Coordinate term: lineage

2. A traditional social group of families in the Scottish Highlands having a common hereditary chieftain.
3. Any group defined by family ties with some sort of political unity.

   Holonym: nation

   Coordinate term: tribe (sometimes holonymous)

   Near-synonym: canton (uncommon outside of certain dialects)

   • 1923, P.G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves:

     As a rule, you see, I'm not lugged into Family Rows. On the occasions when Aunt is calling to Aunt like mastodons bellowing across primeval swamps and Uncle James's letter about Cousin Mabel's peculiar behaviour is being shot round the family circle... the clan has a tendency to ignore me.

4. (video games) A group of players who habitually play on the same team in multiplayer games.
5. A badger colony.

• → Catalan: clan
• → Danish: klan
• → Dutch: clan
• → French: clan
  • → Turkish: klan
• → Galician: clan
• → German: Clan
• → Italian: clan
• → Norwegian Bokmål: klan
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: klan
• → Polish: klan
• → Russian: клан (klan)
• → Portuguese: clan, clã
• → Spanish: clan
• → Swedish: klan

• clan lab

• Lanc, NLCA, NaCl

clan m (plural clans)

1. clan

Borrowed from English clan, from Scottish Gaelic clann (“progeny, race”), from Old Irish cland, from Old Welsh plant, from Latin planta (“shoot, offspring”). As such, it is a doublet of plant (“plant, flora”).

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /klɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: clan
• Rhymes: -ɛn

clan m (plural clans, diminutive clannetje n)

1. clan, kin group, esp. in relation to the Scottish Highlands or Scotland in general
2. (gaming) a group of gamers playing on the same team, a clan

• Afrikaans: clan
• → Indonesian: klan

Borrowed from English clan, from Scottish Gaelic clann (“progeny, race”), from Old Irish cland, from Old Welsh plant, from Latin planta (“shoot, offspring”), and therefore a doublet of plante.

• IPA^(key): /klɑ̃/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

clan m (plural clans)

1. clan

• → Turkish: klan

• “clan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

from Irish clann (“offspring, children of the family”) and Scottish Gaelic clann, both from Old Irish cland, borrowed from Old Welsh plant, itself borrowed from Latin planta (“shoot, offspring”). Doublet of planta.

clan m (plural clans)

1. clan

   Synonym: tribo

Unadapted borrowing from English clan. Ultimately a doublet of pianta.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklan/, /ˈklɛn/^[1]
• Rhymes: -an, -ɛn
• Hyphenation: clàn

clan m (invariable)

1. clan
2. team
3. gang

clan m (plural clans)

1. alternative spelling of clã

Borrowed from French clan.

clan n (plural clanuri)

1. clan

Borrowed from English clan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklan/ [ˈklãn]
• Rhymes: -an
• Syllabification: clan

clan m (plural clanes)

1. clan

• “clan”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025