Notes:

• In her poem, “Recuerdo,” Edna St. Vincent Millay writes: “And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold”
• The word “wan” is a homophone with the Spanish name “Juan” (Juan looked wan).
• On a recent Friday afternoon the two hosts of a science program on the radio network NPR couldn’t decide how to pronounce “wan”; one said [wæn] and the other thought it might be [wan]. However, the pronunciation [wæn] is used by computer professionals to refer to the term WAN, which stands for “wide area network,” which in turn rhymes with LAN [læn], which refers to “local area network.” The host of the science program may have been more familiar with WAN than with “wan.”
• The pronunciation tips for this word also apply to the word “wander,” which means to walk around aimlessly without a specific purpose or goal, as in the sentence: “He wandered around the open air market until it was time for his next appointment.” Here the distinct /a/ will distinguish this word from “wonder,” which uses the short, grunt-like vowel /ʌ/.