blue jeans
Americannoun
Usage
What are blue jeans? Blue jeans are a type of pants traditionally made from denim (a kind of cotton fabric). Blue jeans are commonly just called jeans. Jeans can be other colors, but they’re most commonly blue. The defining feature of most jeans is that they’re made out of some kind of denim or denim-like fabric. Most jeans have seams and pockets that are reinforced with rivets—small metal fasteners. The word jeans can technically be used to refer to pants made from other materials, such as corduroy, but this isn’t common. For example, pants made out of corduroy are commonly called corduroys. Blue jeans were originally worn as pants for rugged work, but they are now most commonly worn as casual attire. Like the words pants and trousers, jeans is always used in the plural form when referring to the pants. The word jean (without an s at the end) can be used to refer to the material and is typically used as a modifier to describe garments that are made of this material, as in jean jacket or jean shorts. Example: I love being able to wear blue jeans to work on casual Fridays.
Etymology
Origin of blue jeans
First recorded in 1850–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They wanted blue jeans and McDonald’s and road movies and Manhattan skyscrapers and California beaches, or at least they thought they did.
From Salon • May 31, 2026
When last seen, he was wearing a black jacket with a red hood, or red hood lining, and blue jeans.
From BBC • Apr. 19, 2026
“I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to elevating and preserving film,” said Ellison, clad in a dark jacket and shirt with blue jeans.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
At a time when American blue jeans and rock ’n’ roll were officially banned in the Soviet Union, Pepsi became the first U.S. consumer product broadly available there.
From Slate • Nov. 13, 2025
I felt a little embarrassed at first when I looked in the mirror; but it was just because I am so used to the men’s blue jeans.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
