scan

1. 1.

   examine minutely or intensely

   “the surgeon scanned the X-ray”

   Broaderexamine

   Narrowerglass
2. 2.

   examine hastily

   “She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi”

   Synonymsskimrakeglance overrun down

   Broaderexamine
3. 3.

   make a wide, sweeping search of

   “The beams scanned the night sky”

   Broadersearch
4. 4.

   conform to a metrical pattern

   Broaderconform

   poetry

5. 5.

   move a light beam over; in electronics, to reproduce an image

   Broadermove
6. 6.

   read metrically

   “scan verses”

   Broaderdeclaim
7. 7.

   obtain data from magnetic tapes or other digital sources

   “This dictionary can be read by the computer”

   Synonymsread

   Broaderinterpret

   Narrowermisread

1. 1.

   the act of scanning; systematic examination of a prescribed region

   “he made a thorough scan of the beach with his binoculars”

   Broaderexamination
2. 2.

   an image produced by scanning

   “he analyzed the brain scan”

   “you could see the tumor in the CAT scan”

   SynonymsCAT scan

   Broaderpicture

Other forms of scan

plural

scans·

past tense or participle

scanned

present participle

scanning

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about scan

What does scan mean?

scan means "examine minutely or intensely". That is the primary sense; the word has 9 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in scan?

scan has 1 syllable: scan. In IPA it is /ˈskæn/.

What is another word for scan?

Close synonyms include skim, rake, glance over, run down, read. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is scan a common word?

scan is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.