Standard Lemma guide

sampan

noun · 3 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.

  • /ˈsæm.pæn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: S AE1 M P AE0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A Chinese flat-bottomed wooden boat propelled by two oars.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Alternative form of jampan.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: India, alt-of, alternative, historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

an Asian skiff usually propelled by two oars

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: skiff

History

Etymology

From Sinitic, likely Cantonese 三板 (saam1 baan2) or Hokkien 舢板 (sam-pán).

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Burmese: သမ္ဗန် (samban) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese Cantonese: 三板 (saam1 baan2) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese Cantonese: 舢舨 (saan1 baan2) — Chinese boat
  • Hakka Chinese: 舢舨 (sân-pán) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese: 船仔 (zh-min-nan) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese: 鷁仔 /鹢仔 (ge̍k-á) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese: 舢舨 (sam-pán) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese: 舢舨仔 (zh-min-nan) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese: 雙槳仔 /双桨仔 (siang-chiún-á) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese Mandarin: 舢舨 (shānbǎn) — Chinese boat
  • Chinese Mandarin: 三板 (sānbǎn) — Chinese boat
  • Dutch: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Finnish: sampaani — Chinese boat
  • French: sampan — Chinese boat
  • German: Sampan — Chinese boat
  • German: chinesisches Wohnboot — Chinese boat
  • Indonesian: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Italian: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Japanese: 三板 — Chinese boat
  • Japanese: 舢板 (sanpan) — Chinese boat
  • Norwegian Bokmål: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Polish: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Portuguese: sampana — Chinese boat
  • Russian: сампа́н (sampán) — Chinese boat
  • Spanish: junco — Chinese boat
  • Spanish: sampán — Chinese boat
  • Swedish: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Tagalog: sampan — Chinese boat
  • Thai: สําปั้น — Chinese boat
  • Vietnamese: thuyền tam bản — Chinese boat
  • Vietnamese: xuồng ba lá — Chinese boat