Meanings
nounfan-tan (uncountable)
alternative fantan
- uncountableA Chinese gambling game in which coins or other small objects are placed upon a table, usually under a cup, and the players bet as to what remainder will be left when the sum of the counters is divided by four.
He came in an said Pack, we were booked for Macau. When we got there, I played fantan in the Lisboa and he crossed over into Zhongshan.
1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 85 - uncountableA card game in which the cards are played in sequences upon the table, and the winner is the first player to have no cards left.
Origin
- Cantonese番攤 /番摊
- Englishfan-tan
Borrowed from Cantonese 番攤 /番摊 (faan¹ taan¹, literally “repeated divisions”).
More words from Cantonese
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Cantonese 番攤 /番摊
- 番攤 /番摊 (faan¹ taan¹)a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four
Tagalog capona
- caponaa specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four
Thai เล่นถั่ว, กำถั่ว
- เล่นถั่ว (len thua)a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four
- กำถั่ว (kam thua)a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four
- ถั่ว (thua)a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four
Cite this entry
APA
fan-tan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fan-tan
MLA
“fan-tan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fan-tan. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fan-tan,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fan-tan.
Source: fan-tan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.