Van

How to spell van

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce van

What does van mean?

1. nounA covered road vehicle, usually boxy, used for carrying goods or passengers.

Van in a sentence

• The delivery van pulled up outside the warehouse at dawn.

• They hired a van to move the furniture to the new flat.

Where does van come from?

Language of origin: Other

In its most familiar modern sense, the covered road vehicle, van is simply a shortened form of caravan, which English picked up in the early 1800s. Caravan itself travelled a long way: it came through French caravane and Italian carovana from the Persian word karwan, which described a company of travellers, traders, or pilgrims journeying together across long distances for safety. Over time English speakers used caravan for the large covered wagon such a company might use, then clipped it to the snappy single syllable van for any boxy goods or passenger vehicle. There is also a separate, older van meaning the front or leading position, as in the van of an army or a movement; that one is a shortening of vanguard, which came from the Old French avant-garde, literally the guard out in front. Both routes left English with the same tiny three-letter spelling, which is why van is one of the easiest words to write but carries two quite different family histories.

How the word is built

• van (a clipped form of caravan)