jean

noun

ˈjēn 

plural jeans

1

: a durable twilled cotton cloth used especially for sportswear and work clothes

2

usually jeans

ˈjēnz 

: pants usually made of denim or jean

… strolling with royal puppy Lupo through Kensington Gardens near the couple's two-bedroom cottage in a pair of jeans and rain boots.

—Alicia Dennis et al.

Millions of people today buy designer jeans for double the price of equally durable generic jeans …

—Jared Diamond

see also blue jeans, mom jeans

Examples of jean in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The pictures show a man dressed in a black shirt, jeans, and a ballcap, and wearing a backpack. —Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 13 Sep. 2025

Underneath the stark floodlights streamed a procession of weary travelers in T-shirts and jeans, reaching into the bottom of a white coach bus for their oversize duffel bags. —ProPublica, 13 Sep. 2025

Adcock was shirtless, wearing only a cowboy hat and a pair of jeans, while leading the crowd. —Janelle Ash, FOXNews.com, 13 Sep. 2025

In a London hotel room, Bronze, dressed in a casual T-shirt and jeans, sits on the sofa. —Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

short for jean fustian, from Middle English Gene Genoa, Italy + fustian

First Known Use

1567, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing jean

• jean shorts

Rhymes for jean

• bean
• bein
• bien
• bouin
• chine
• clean
• deen
• diene
• gene
• glean
• keen
• lien

Kids Definition

jean

noun

ˈjēn 

1

: a heavy cotton cloth used especially for sportswear and work clothes

2

plural : pants made of jean, denim, or corduroy

Etymology

a shortened form of earlier jean fustian, literally "a fustian (heavy cotton cloth) from Genoa," from Middle English Gene "Genoa, Italy"