beanie
Americannoun
-
a close-fitting knit cap worn in cold weather.
-
a small cap, brimless or with a short bill, often brightly colored, constructed of triangular pieces of cloth joined at the top by a button and popularized in the early 20th century as worn by college freshmen.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of beanie
Compare meaning
How does beanie compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A beanie is a small, round, brimless hat. It was fashionable for boys to wear beanies in the first half of the 20th century. Traditionally, a beanie was a flat, close-fitting hat without a brim, sometimes also called a skullcap. In the early 1900s, adult workers and young men commonly wore beanies, which eventually evolved into today's baseball cap. The hat was probably named beanie after the bean-sized, cloth-covered button in the center of the cap. In the UK, a beanie is simply a knitted stocking cap.
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.
This season you’ve had Stephen Colbert, Griffin Dunne, Beanie Feldstein and Patti LuPone, who was in the finale.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
“I would go back to the Beanie Baby craze,” he said, adding that he isn’t too keen on Pokémon cards, either.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 26, 2025
Maybe that bin of Beanie Babies isn’t going to pay for your next Hawaiian vacation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 8, 2025
She likens the soft toys to Ty Beanie Babies, one of the biggest toy trends of the 1990s.
From BBC • Feb. 8, 2025
She gave me a startled look like the hoot owl at the Amish farm, then backed off toward a shelf of Beanie Babies.
From "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key" by Jack Gantos
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.
