fanwork

F4A1N1W4O1R1K5

noun

Fan tracery.

“William saw Michaela's fanwork of The Powerpuff Girls, her favorite TV show of all time.”

Scrabble 17

Meanings

fanwork1

nounfanwork (countable and uncountable, plural fanworks)

plural fanworks

  1. countableuncountablearchitectureFan tracery.

    There were bits of a vaulted roof with panelled fanwork and moulded ribs, recalling the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster.

    2008, Geoffrey Ashe, King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury, Sutton Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 289
    2 more examples

    The chapel — a soaring, slender-shafted building, with fanwork upon its roof and an apse deep and pointed — seemed full of light, withal it was hung with black velvet.

    1911, Maurice Hewlett, The Song of Renny, Charles Scribner's Son, 's (1911), page 389

    Now the Grand High Witch removes her mask and wig: A hideous beak and a decrepit bodice of skin and bones, like the stone ceiling fanwork in a Gothic chamber, her blotchy scalp a moonscape fermenting cobwebs.

    2008, Leonard Ginsberg, Rhapsody on a Film by Kurosawa, Trafford Publishing, published 2008, →ISBN, page 48
  2. countableuncountableA fan-shaped network of lines or projections.

    He had three lines running across his forehead, and a fanwork of them radiating from the corner of each eye.

    2013, Leigh Evans, The Trouble with Fate, St. Martin's Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 222
    2 more examples

    He smiled again, easily, dimples creasing his cheeks, and a tiny fanwork of lines crinkled the corners of his dark eyes.

    1999, Anne Marie Winston, Lovers' Reunion, Silhouette Books, published 1999, →ISBN

    The bud vase lay on its side near the bush; a lacy fanwork of roots had spread out over the tabletop, following the path of the spilled water.

    2006, Kage Baker, The Machine's Child, Tor, published 2007, →ISBN, page 123

fanwork2

nounfanwork (countable and uncountable, plural fanworks)

plural fanworks

  1. countableuncountableA creative work produced by a fan, based on a book, movie, television show, musical group, etc.

    William saw Michaela's fanwork of The Powerpuff Girls, her favorite TV show of all time.

    3 more examples

    Fans often declare that they prefer fanon to what actually happens in canon and fanworks to the actual series, which is lackluster by comparison.

    2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-Language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 132

    The result is a proliferation of fanworks that explore narratives of transgression as fans play with the permissibility of Supernatural's supernatural world.

    2009, Emily Turner, "Scary Just Got Sexy: Transgression in Supernatural and Its Fanfiction", in In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural (ed. Supernatural.tv), BenBella Books (2009), page 159

    Other factors contributing to the increased interest in dōjinshi and in fanworks were the development of fixed otaku landmarks and the spread of computers.

    2010, Fan-Yi Lam, “Comic Market: How the World's Biggest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Dōjinshi Culture”, in Frenchy Lunning, editor, Fanthropologies, volume 5, University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 239

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

fanwork. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fanwork

MLA

“fanwork.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fanwork. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fanwork,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fanwork.

Source: fanwork on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.