Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

lilian

/ˈlɪli.ən/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.75 in modern English

Syllables: lil-ian
IPA: /ˈlɪli.ən/

6

Scrabble Score

6

Letters

3

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A female given name from Latin.

Example Sentences

"Airy, fairy Lilian, / Flitting, fairy Lilian, / When I ask her if she loves me, / Claps her tiny hands above me, / Laughing all she can."
"When it was my turn Roger told the crowd that my romanised second and third name, if written as one word in Pinyin, as is now the custom, was exactly like the English girl's name Lilian and he therefore proposed to leave it like that, Lilian being a very pretty name, he said."
"These behaviors and mindsets contrast with mindful eating, which means using all your physical and emotional senses to experience and enjoy the food choices you make without judgment, said Lilian Cheung, a lecturer and director of health promotion and communication in the nutrition department at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, via email."

Etymology

Used since the sixteenth century, possibly originally a pet form of Elizabeth, but generally accepted as a variant of Late Latin lilium (“lily”).

Word Breakdown

Root: lilium

Inflected Forms

Lillian (alternative)

Frequently Paired Words

Lila Lil Lili Lilia Liliana Liliane Lilias Lilli

Rhymes With

chilean gillian lillian sicilian jillian maximilian milian kilian lilyan

Questions

How do you pronounce lilian?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈlɪli.ən/.
What does lilian mean?: A female given name from Latin.
Where does lilian come from?: Used since the sixteenth century, possibly originally a pet form of Elizabeth, but generally accepted as a variant of Late Latin lilium (“lily”).

How to pronounce lilian

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “lilian”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈlɪli.ən/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “lilian”.
Repeat and practice — Say “lilian” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.