This word has many cognates, in every Germanic language (whether extant or extinct), with similarities in form and meaning.
Virtually all the words below mean “man” and “husband”, with some specific cases noted.
“I want you to know that I hate you, that I think you are a cur, and that I'll never, never speak to you again. Oh, I don't dare to say what I think of you, you — man!”
“[…]it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
For more quotations using this term, see Citations:man.
1776 December 19, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis[2]:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
2011, Eileen Gray and the Design of Sapphic Modernity: Staying In, page 109:
Unsurprisingly, if modern man is a sort of camera, modern woman is a picture.
When President Roosevelt goes walking in the country about Washington he is always accompanied by two Secret Service men.
1913, Robert Herrick, One Woman's Life, page 46:
"And they're very good people, I assure you — he's a Harvard man." It was the first time Milly had met on intimate terms a graduate of a large university.
A man would expect, in so very ancient a town of Italy, to find some considerable antiquities; but all they have to show of this nature is an old Rostrum of a Roman ship, that stands over the door of their arsenal.
1776 December 19, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis[3]:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
1793 August, Edmund Burke, “The Right Hon. Edmund Burke to the Comte de Mercy”, in Charles William [Wentworth-Fitzwilliam], [5th] Earl Fitzwilliam, Richard Bourke, editors, Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Between the Year 1744, and the Period of His Decease, in 1797, volume IV, London: Francis & John Rivington,[…], published 1844, pages 144–145:
Without this help, such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of men (both sexes) in France, still more than in the external order of things, and the evil is so great and spreading, that a remedy is impossible on any other terms.
Similarly, the next time you learn from your reading that the average man (you hear a good deal about him these days, most of it faintly improbable) brushes his teeth 1.02 times a day—a figure I have just made up, but it may be as good as anyone else's – ask yourself a question. How can anyone have found out such a thing? Is a woman who has read in countless advertisements that non-brushers are social offenders going to confess to a stranger that she does not brush her teeth regularly?
God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
1776 December 19, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis[4]:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man. Many of them have no relation to him. The cycle of their existence has gone on independently of his, and is disturbed or broken by every advance in man’s intellectual development; and their happiness and enjoyments, their loves and hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life and early death, would seem to be immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation alone[.]
1991, Barry J. Blake, Australian Aboriginal Languages: A General Introduction, page 75:
Academics who study Aboriginal languages are […] contributing to Man’s search for knowledge, a search that interests most people even if they are not personally involved in it.
Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.
1776 December 19, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis[6]:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
1990, The Almanac of Science and Technology, →ISBN, page 68:
The evidence suggests that close relatives of early man, in lineages that later became extinct, also were able to use tools.
Expect: But was the devil a proper man, gossip? / As fine a gentleman of his inches as ever I saw trusted to the stage, or any where else.
2008, Christopher Paolini, Brisingr: Or The Seven Promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Bjartskular - Inheritance Book Three, →ISBN, page 549:
Clearing a space between the tables, the men tested their prowess against one another with feats of wrestling and archery and bouts with quarterstaves. Two of the elves, a man and a woman, demonstrated their skill with swordplay—[…]
2014, Oisin McGann, Kings of the Realm: Cruel Salvation, Penguin UK, →ISBN:
There was a pair of burly dwarves – a woman and a man – bearing the markings of the formidable Thane Guards.
The vassal, or tenant, kneeling, ungirt, uncovered, and holding up his hands between those of his lord, professed that he did become his man from that day forth, of life, limb, and earthly honour.
No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.
The white men are always put on that side of the board which commences by row I, and the black men are placed opposite.
1961, Kenneth S. Howard, How to Solve Chess Problems, page 137:
[…] a short analysis will undoubtedly convince the solver than the queen is the most likely man to make the keymove. The greatest difficulty undoubtedly will be in finding the second move continuations.
(video games) One of the player's chances to play, lost when the player's character dies or when certain mistakes are made.
Eternal Life is now on my trail / Got my red glitter coffin, man, just need one last nail / While all these ugly gentlemen play out their foolish games / There's a flaming red horizon that screams our names / And as your fantasies are broken in two / Did you really think this bloody road would pave the way for you? / You better turn around and blow your kiss hello to life eternal, angel / Racist everyman, what have you done? / Man, you've made a killer of your unborn son / Crown my fear your king at the point of a gun / All I want to do is love everyone
A term of familiar address usually reserved for other adult males. It works both with ones whose name is known and ones whose name is unknown.
"It was a brutal return to football for Brisbane Lions defender Harris Andrews as his man Tom Hawkins booted seven goals but Lions Coach Chris Fagan said the team's defensive faults, rather than the backman's, allowed the big Cat to dominate."
2023 March 26, Phil McNulty, “England 2-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport[8]:
The second arrived three minutes later and was all Saka's own work, the Arsenal winger turning away from his man on the edge of the area and curling a superb effort beyond the reach of Anatoliy Trubin and into the top corner.
The use of man (compare Old Englishmann, wer, wīf) to mean both "human (of any gender)" and "adult male", which developed after Old English's distinct term for the latter (wer) fell out of use, has been criticized since at least the second half of the twentieth century.[2] Critics claim that the use of "man", both alone and in compounds, to denote a human of any gender "is now often regarded as sexist or at best old-fashioned",[2] "flatly discriminatory in that it slights or ignores the membership of women in the human race".[3] The American Heritage Dictionary wrote that in 2004 75–79% of their usage panel still accepted sentences with generic man, and 86–87% accepted sentences with man-made.[4] Some style guides recommend against generic "man", and "although some editors and writers reject or disregard […] objections to man as a generic, many now choose instead to use" human, human being or person instead.[3]
This generic usage is still preserved in certain dialects, pidgins, and creoles of English, as well as fixed expressions and certain religious documents and declarations such as the Nicene Creed (e.g. "...for us men and our salvation..."). Consideration of this has sometimes led to accusations of the critics of the generic man as enforcing linguistic prescriptivism.
The 19 meandering minutes of Dark Star are attractive enough but, man, they go on, while poor Creedence Clearwater Revival – headliners, with Bad Moon Rising still in the charts – are watching the clock tick in the wings.
[Sully:] If it weren’t for that snake […]Man wouldn’t even be in this mess right now.
2013, Jenny Cheshire, “Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics[10], volume 17, number 5, archived from the original on 12 April 2026, page 609:
before I got arrested man paid for my own ticket to go Jamaica you know . but I’ve never paid to go on no holiday before this time I paid (Dexter, MLE)
Oh, come on. Help a brother out. People see you coppin', might inspire them. Look, I know you ain't payin' bills right now. Man must have bare peas saved up.
He was of all colours Þat man may se of flours Be-twene Mydsomer and May.
2013, Jenny Cheshire, “Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics[12], volume 17, number 5, archived from the original on 12 April 2026, page 609:
I don’t really mind how . how my girl looks if she looks decent yeah and there’s one bit of her face that just looks mashed yeah . I don’t care it’s her personality man’s looking at (Alex, MLE corpus [MLE])
Usage notes
The usage of man as a pronoun originally died out in the 15th century. It has independently reappeared in MLE. There it is most commonly used as a first person pronoun or as an indefinite personal pronoun, but uses in the second and third person are also attested.[1]
2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 39:
In Britain, nearly 2,500 steam locomotives were built, 999 to new designs. Although the latter were modern, they were still labour-intensive to man and maintain, during a period of full employment when working for poor pay in the dirty railway environment was unattractive.
At times it might seem, to a less sympathetic soul than our imagined observer, that this pale blue, egg-shaped two-door sedan, of uncertain age and in mediocre condition, was manned by an idiot.
2021 October 14, Oren Liebermann, “CENTCOM disputes Air Force account of attempted hijacking at Kabul airport during Afghanistan evacuation”, in CNN[13], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery:
“To stay open, the senior enlisted leader of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Forward said he needed people to cover security,” Duncan wrote. “Personnel Recovery Task Force (PRTF) Pilots, maintainers and support personnel donned their vests, helmets and M-4 rifles and manned defensive fighting positions.”
↑ 1.01.1Jenny Cheshire (2013), “Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics[1], volume 17, number 5, archived from the original on 12 April 2026, pages 608–633
The normal plural in contemporary Afrikaans is mans. The form manne now usually refers to the members of a male group, such as a group of friends or a team or unit. Compare:
Vroue en mans moet gelyke regte hê. ― Women and men must have equal rights.
Die manne het goed gespeel vandag. ― The men played well today.
Jani Thomai et al. (2006), “man”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), Tiranë: Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë
Tryon, D. T. (1976), New Hebrides languages: An internal classification (Pacific Linguistics; C-50)[14], Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University
2011, Vida Beinortienė, Romų kalba [Roma Language][15] (overall work in Lithuanian), Panevėžio Vaikų Dienos Užimtumo Centras [Panevėžys Children's Day Care Center], →ISBN, posakiai [expressions], page 64:
Kimyagarov, Amnun; Kimyagarova, Zoya (2010), Short English - Russian - Bukharian Jewish Dictionary, New York: International Academy for Development Technologies, →ISBN, page 27
Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Ze is al jaren gelukkig getrouwd met haar man. ― She has been happily married to her husband for years.
Hij is een zorgzame man en een geweldige vader. ― He is a caring husband and a great father.
Haar man verraste haar met een romantisch diner. ― Her husband surprised her with a romantic dinner.
Usage notes
The normal plural is mannen. The unchanged form man is used after numerals only; it refers to the size of a group rather than a number of individuals. For example: In totaal verloren er 5000 man hun leven in die slag. (“5000 men altogether lost their lives in that battle.”) The plural mans is dated, now mostly occurring in nautical contexts or in dialect.
1 Also used before feminine adjectives and nouns beginning with a vowel or mute h. 2 Also used as the polite singular form. For the singular persons there are gender-neutral neologisms man, tan, san. These are extremely rare.
Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “man”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
Antón Santamarina, editor (2006–2013), “man”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
one, you, they(indefinite pronoun, referring to people at large; construed as a third-person singular)
Man kann nicht immer kriegen, was man will.
You can’t always get what you want.
Manchmal muss man Kompromisse machen.
Sometimes one must compromise.
Zumindest sagt man das so...
At least that’s what they say...
2008, Frank Behmeta, Wenn ich die Augen öffne, page 55:
Kann man es fühlen, wenn man schwanger ist?
Can one feel that one is pregnant?
Usage notes
Man is used in the nominative case only; for the oblique cases, forms of the pronoun einer are used; for example, Man' kann nicht immer tun, was einen glücklich macht(“One cannot always do what makes one happy”).
Since man derives from the same source as Mann(“man; male”), its use is considered problematic by some feminists. They have proposed alternating man and the feminine neologism frau, or using the generic neologism mensch. This usage has gained some currency in feminist and left-wing publications, but remains rare otherwise.
In the sense of “someone”, man is often translated using the passive voice (“I was told that...” rather than “someone told me that...”).
1584, “Exodus. Aunnur Bok Moſe”, in Guðbrandur Þorláksson, transl., Biblia, Þad Er Øll Heiloͤg Ritning vtloͤgd a Norrænu[19], Hólar: Jón Jónsson, archived from the original on 12 November 2017, chapter 16, verse 33, page 76:
Og Moſes ſegde til Aaron / Tak þier eina Føtu / og legg eirn Gomor fullan af Man þar i / og lꜳt þad vardueitaſt fyrer DROTTNI til ydar ep[t]erkomande Kynkuijſla
Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), “man”, in Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, →ISBN(Available at Málið.is under the “Eldri orðabækur” tab.)
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
