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van

Pronunciation: /væn/

The English word “van” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus.
  2. An enclosed railway vehicle for transport of goods, such as a boxcar/box van.
  3. A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods.
  4. A large towable vehicle equipped for the repair of structures that cannot easily be moved.
  5. A shovel used in cleansing ore.
  6. A fan or other contrivance, such as a sieve, for winnowing grain.
  7. A wing with which the air is beaten.

verb

  1. To transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses).
  2. Of law enforcement: to arrest (not necessarily in a van; derived from party van).
  3. To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.

Etymology

Short for caravan.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.