man and mann are homophones: they are pronounced identically and spelled differently, which is why they are so often swapped. man means “an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)”. mann means “United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859)”. man is the more common of the two in everyday English.
/ˈmæn/
1.n.an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
“there were two women and six men on the bus”
2.n.someone who serves in the armed forces; a member of a military force
“two men stood sentry duty”
3.n.the generic use of the word to refer to any human being
“it was every man for himself”
/ˈmæn/
| man | mann | |
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈmæn/ | /ˈmæn/ |
| Said | man | man |
| Syllables | 1 | 1 |
| Letters | 3 | 4 |
| Parts of speech | noun, verb | noun |
| Senses | 13 | 2 |
| How common | Core | Familiar |
| Synonyms | adult male | Horace Mann |
1.n.United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859)
2.n.German writer concerned about the role of the artist in bourgeois society (1875-1955)