Jeans
//d͡ʒiːnz// name, noun
name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A pair of trousers made from denim cotton. plural, plural-only
"Traditionally most jeans are dyed dark blue."
- 2 plural of jean form-of, plural
- 3 plural of Jean form-of, plural
- 4 (used in the plural) close-fitting trousers of heavy denim for manual work or casual wear wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname originating as a patronymic derived from a medieval variant of John.
Example
More examples"Boy, did she have egg on her face when she showed up at the formal party wearing blue jeans!"
Etymology
From Gene(s) (also spelled Jean(s)), an obsolete English name for the Italian city of Genoa. Compare French Gênes. In the context of clothing, the term originally denoted a kind of coarse cotton (known more fully as Gene(s) fustian) that was associated with Genoa. It began to be used for trousers made of such cloth in the 19th century. At this point, the final -s was reanalysed as a plural ending.
Related phrases
More for "jeans"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.