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.
Sexton was last seen wearing a white jacket and blue jeans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
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
Cristiano, who appeared in court dressed in a black and gold bomber jacket and blue jeans and who followed proceedings through an Italian interpreter, showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
I wore a long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and a gray hat I had purchased the night before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2025
She’s dressed in a worn flannel shirt and dark blue jeans.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
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.
