jean

¹

[jeen, jeyn]

noun

1. Sometimes jeans a sturdy twilled fabric, usually of cotton.

2. (used with a plural verb),  jeans,

   1. blue jeans.

   2. pants of various fabrics, styled or constructed like blue jeans.

Jean

²

[zhahn, jeen]

noun

1. 1921–2019, Grand Duke of Luxembourg 1964–2000.

2. a male given name, form of John.

3. a female given name.

Jean

¹

/ ʒɑ̃ /

noun

1. born 1921, full name Jean Benoît Guillaume Robert Antoine Louis Marie Adolphe Marc d'Aviano , grand duke of Luxembourg (1964–2000)

2. Michaelle. born 1957, in Haiti. Canadian stateswoman and broadcaster; governor-general from 2005

jean

²

/ dʒiːn /

noun

1. a tough twill-weave cotton fabric used for hard-wearing trousers, overalls, etc See also jeans

Other Word Forms

• jeaned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of jean¹

1485–95; short for jean fustian, earlier Gene(s) fustian Genoese or Genoa fustian

Word History and Origins

Origin of jean¹

C16: short for jean fustian, from Gene _Genoa

Example Sentences

Soon, talking to an actual human being—a person who deserved courtesy, empathy and genuine give-and-take—felt like squeezing into too-tight jeans after a month of living in sweatpants.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At the company’s headquarters, which is located in downtown L.A.’s Arts District, employees dressed in jeans and T-shirts work on developing a new train model for mass production.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He grew up scraping icy turns at Hunter Mountain in upstate New York, wearing gaiters on his boots—and jeans.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The students, wearing sweats, torn jeans and colorful, off-the-shoulder shirts, spitball ideas with Mass — they are excited and interested, and find ways to incorporate various random objects from the black box theater into their narrative.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The video then cut to a clip of Lizzo parodying the American Eagle ad, with the caption: "Lizzo's got good jeans."

Read more on BBC

When To Use

What does jean mean?

The word jean refers to the kind of material used to make jeans, as in blue jeans—a type of pants.Jeans are traditionally made from denim, a kind of cotton fabric. Today, jeans are made from a variety of fabrics and fabric blends, but they’re still called jeans if they resemble denim blue jeans. In this way, the word jean isn’t commonly used as a name of a kind of material until after it’s been made into jeans.Jean is most commonly used as a modifier to describe garments that are made of denim or the kind of fabric that blue jeans are made of, as in jean shorts, jean jacket (also commonly called a denim jacket), and jean shirt.Example: I used to wear a jean jacket with a bunch of patches on it.