Other forms: vans
A van is a medium-sized covered vehicle used for deliveries and moving. A delivery van, hire a van, the back of the van.
It is bigger than a car and smaller than a lorry, and in Britain white van is a whole social shorthand. Van life describes living in a converted one. A van is also the covered railway wagon — a guard's van, a luggage van. Note that van is short for caravan, so a caravan is not a kind of van but the other way round; and that the Dutch van in surnames is unrelated.
1nounvanA medium-sized covered vehicle for deliveries.
“The builder loaded his tools into the back of his van.”
van is a vehicle.
The word is simply a shortening of caravan, which came through Italian from Persian karwan, a company of travellers. The vehicle is named after the group of travellers, not the other way round.
Short for caravan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA