Standard Lemma guide

furan

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈfjʊə.ɹæn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈfjʊɹ.æn/

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds containing a ring of four carbon atoms, two double bonds and an oxygen atom; especially the simplest one, C4H4O.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a colorless toxic flammable liquid used in the synthesis of nylon

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: furane, furfuran

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: organic compound

Narrower terms: nitrofuran

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin furfur Akkadian 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)bor. Aramaic כוחלא (kuḥlā)bor. Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl) Andalusian Arabic اَلْكُحُول (al-kuḥūl)bor. Latin alcoholder. Proto-Indo-European *de Proto-Indo-European *-h1 Proto-Indo-European *déh1 Proto-Italic *dē Latin dē Latin de-der. Proto-Indo-European *wed- Proto-Indo-European *-r̥ Proto-Indo-European *wódr̥ Proto-Hellenic *údōr Ancient Greek ῡ̆̔́δωρ (hū̆́dōr) Ancient Greek ῠ̔δρο- (hŭdro-)der. German Aldehydbor. English aldehydeclip. English -al English furfural Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Latin -nus Latin -ānus Old French -ainder. Middle English -an English -an English furan From furfural + -an.

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: furan — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Chinese Cantonese: 呋喃 (fu1 naam4) — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Chinese Mandarin: 呋喃 (fūnán) — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Finnish: furaani — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • French: furane — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • German: Furan — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Greek: φουράνιο (fouránio) — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Hungarian: furán — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Italian: furano — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Japanese: フラン (furan) — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Korean: 퓨란 (pyuran) — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Polish: furan — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Portuguese: furano — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
  • Spanish: furano — any of a class of aromatic heterocyclic compounds
Real reading context

furan in complete knowledge articles