Mien

//miːn// name, noun

name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Demeanor; facial expression or attitude, especially one which is intended by its bearer. countable, uncountable

    "Gentlest Guardians marked serene / His early hope, his liberal mien; […]"

  2. 2
    dignified manner or conduct wordnet
  3. 3
    A specific facial expression. countable

    "It’s hard to say which is worse: the press-on smiles favored by many a ballet dancer, or the stony “I’m going to pretend this isn’t happening to me” miens often found in contemporary troupes like White Road."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A group of related languages spoken by the Yao people.

Synonyms

All synonyms
bearingactactionactionsactivityacts

Example

More examples

"His avuncular mien endears him to small children."

Etymology

From French mine (“appearance”) (whence also Danish mine and German Miene), perhaps from Breton min (“face of an animal”), or from Latin minio (“to redden”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.