as in pallid
lacking a healthy skin color
she looks a little wan after all that tiring work
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Example Sentences
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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
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
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Morfydd Clark, pallid at first, has some emotive scenes at the wedding when Ophelia rails at Hamlet for turning away from her.—
Caryn James,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Aug. 2025
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Yet senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk recently took one of those pallid lumps and coaxed utter brilliance from it.—
Chris Morocco,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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One moment, the Sound of Sleat is a sheet of silver under a pale sun; the next, wind drives rain sideways into the distillery’s courtyard, rattling the pagoda roof.—
Gina Pace,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
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Curiosity and possibly even lust play into their first encounter; part of the welcome complexity between this pale-skinned woman of substance and this tall, equally alabaster, formerly dead drink of water is the ambiguity in their initial interactions.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
9 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wan. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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