man.
An adult male human.
Meaning & usage
An adult male human.
The show is especially popular with middle-aged men.
An adult male human. All human males collectively: mankind.
An adult male human. An adult male who belongs to a particular group: an employee, a representative, etc.
An adult male human. An adult male who has, to an eminent degree, qualities considered masculine, such as strength, integrity, and devotion to family; a mensch.
An adult male human. An adult or adolescent male servant. Anyone from a right-hand man (high-ranking assistant) to a low-ranking servant.
A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.
every man for himself
A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult. All humans collectively; mankind, humankind, humanity.
A member of the genus Homo, especially of the species Homo sapiens.
A male person, usually an adult; a (generally adult male) sentient being, whether human, supernatural, elf, alien, etc.
Manliness; the quality or state of being manly.
A husband.
A male lover; a boyfriend.
Stay away from my man!
Used as the last element of a compound. A male enthusiast or devotee; a male who is very fond of or devoted to a specified kind of thing.
Some people prefer apple pie, but me, I’m a cherry pie man.
Used as the last element of a compound. A person, usually male, who has duties or skills associated with a specified thing.
I wanted to be a guitar man on a road tour, but instead I’m a flag man on a road crew.
A person, usually male, who can fulfill one's requirements with regard to a specified matter.
A vassal; a subject.
Like master, like man.
all the king's men
A piece or token used in board games such as backgammon.
One of the player's chances to play, lost when the player's character dies or when certain mistakes are made.
A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste.
Come on, man, we've got no time to lose!
A term of familiar address usually reserved for other adult males. It works both with ones whose name is known and ones whose name is unknown.
Hey, man, how's it goin'? I haven't seen you in months! [they know each other's name]
Hey, man, thanks for holding the door! [they don't know each other's name, and it doesn't matter]
A player on whom another is playing, with the intent of limiting their attacking impact.
A soldier below the rank of a non-commissioned officer.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of mann and Manu. Cognates This word has many cognates, in every Germanic language (whether extant or extinct), with similarities in form and meaning. Virtually all the words below mean “man” and “husband”, with some specific cases noted. In Ingvaeonic (the languages closest to English): :* Low German Mann :* North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon :* Saterland Frisian Mon :* Scots man :* West Frisian man :* Yola man In the remainder of West Germanic: :* Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn :* Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn :* Cimbrian man, mann, månn :* Dutch, Limburgish, and Zealandic man :* German and Luxembourgish Mann :* Mòcheno mònn :* Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn :* Yiddish מאַן (man) In East Germanic: :* Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna), which meant “man”, “human“ and “person”, but likely also “husband” In North Germanic: :* Danish mand :* Faroese and Icelandic maður, both additionally meaning “human” and “person”, as in Old Norse :* Gutnish and Swedish man :* Norn, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk mann :* Norwegian Nynorsk mainnj :* Old Norse maðr Outside Germanic: : Indo-Iranian: ::* Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”) ::* Sanskrit मनुस् (manus, “human”), मनु (manu, “human; humanity; thought”; “thinking; wise; intelligent”) ::* Also Sanskrit म॒नु॒ष्य॑ (manuṣyà, “human; man; huband”, whence English manusya) : Slavic (all of these mean “man” and “husband”, though in some cases the former is no longer part of the modern standard): ::* Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž) ::* Bulgarian мъж (măž) ::* Czech and Slovak muž ::* Macedonian маж (maž) ::* Polish mąż (“husband”; the meaning “man” is obsolete, akin to English wife) ::* Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž ::* Slovene mož
Used to place emphasis upon something or someone; sometimes, but not always, when actually addressing a man.
Man, that was a great catch!
Where this word comes from
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of mann and Manu. Cognates This word has many cognates, in every Germanic language (whether extant or extinct), with similarities in form and meaning. Virtually all the words below mean “man” and “husband”, with some specific cases noted. In Ingvaeonic (the languages closest to English): :* Low German Mann :* North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon :* Saterland Frisian Mon :* Scots man :* West Frisian man :* Yola man In the remainder of West Germanic: :* Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn :* Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn :* Cimbrian man, mann, månn :* Dutch, Limburgish, and Zealandic man :* German and Luxembourgish Mann :* Mòcheno mònn :* Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn :* Yiddish מאַן (man) In East Germanic: :* Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna), which meant “man”, “human“ and “person”, but likely also “husband” In North Germanic: :* Danish mand :* Faroese and Icelandic maður, both additionally meaning “human” and “person”, as in Old Norse :* Gutnish and Swedish man :* Norn, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk mann :* Norwegian Nynorsk mainnj :* Old Norse maðr Outside Germanic: : Indo-Iranian: ::* Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”) ::* Sanskrit मनुस् (manus, “human”), मनु (manu, “human; humanity; thought”; “thinking; wise; intelligent”) ::* Also Sanskrit म॒नु॒ष्य॑ (manuṣyà, “human; man; huband”, whence English manusya) : Slavic (all of these mean “man” and “husband”, though in some cases the former is no longer part of the modern standard): ::* Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž) ::* Bulgarian мъж (măž) ::* Czech and Slovak muž ::* Macedonian маж (maž) ::* Polish mąż (“husband”; the meaning “man” is obsolete, akin to English wife) ::* Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž ::* Slovene mož
Used to refer to oneself or one's group: I, we; construed in the third person.
Man's got some new creps.
You; construed in the third person.
Man thinks I was born yesterday.
Any person, one
Man don't care.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of mann and Manu. Cognates This word has many cognates, in every Germanic language (whether extant or extinct), with similarities in form and meaning. Virtually all the words below mean “man” and “husband”, with some specific cases noted. In Ingvaeonic (the languages closest to English): :* Low German Mann :* North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon :* Saterland Frisian Mon :* Scots man :* West Frisian man :* Yola man In the remainder of West Germanic: :* Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn :* Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn :* Cimbrian man, mann, månn :* Dutch, Limburgish, and Zealandic man :* German and Luxembourgish Mann :* Mòcheno mònn :* Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn :* Yiddish מאַן (man) In East Germanic: :* Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna), which meant “man”, “human“ and “person”, but likely also “husband” In North Germanic: :* Danish mand :* Faroese and Icelandic maður, both additionally meaning “human” and “person”, as in Old Norse :* Gutnish and Swedish man :* Norn, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk mann :* Norwegian Nynorsk mainnj :* Old Norse maðr Outside Germanic: : Indo-Iranian: ::* Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”) ::* Sanskrit मनुस् (manus, “human”), मनु (manu, “human; humanity; thought”; “thinking; wise; intelligent”) ::* Also Sanskrit म॒नु॒ष्य॑ (manuṣyà, “human; man; huband”, whence English manusya) : Slavic (all of these mean “man” and “husband”, though in some cases the former is no longer part of the modern standard): ::* Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž) ::* Bulgarian мъж (măž) ::* Czech and Slovak muž ::* Macedonian маж (maž) ::* Polish mąż (“husband”; the meaning “man” is obsolete, akin to English wife) ::* Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž ::* Slovene mož
To supply (something) with staff or crew (of either sex).
The ship was manned with a small crew.
To take up position in order to operate (something).
Man the machine guns!
To brace (oneself), to fortify or steel (oneself) in a manly way. (Compare man up.)
To wait on, attend to or escort.
To accustom (a raptor or other type of bird) to the presence of people.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English mannen, from Old English mannian, ġemannian (“to man, supply with men, populate, garrison”), from mann (“human being, man”). Cognates * Dutch bemannen (“to man”) * German bemannen (“to man”) * Danish bemande (“to man”) * Swedish bemanna (“to man”) * Icelandic manna (“to supply with men, to man”)
A command used to display help pages in Unix and Unix-like operating systems.
Where this word comes from
Clipping of manual.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.