Syllable division derived from spelling — this word is not in the pronouncing dictionary, so no phonetic transcription is shown rather than a guessed one.
also-ran is a noun meaning "a contestant who loses the contest". It carries one recorded sense.
a contestant who loses the contest
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for also-ran come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.