gown
Americannoun
-
a woman's dress or robe, especially one that is full-length.
- Synonyms:
- frock
-
a loose, flowing outer garment in any of various forms, worn by a man or woman as distinctive of office, profession, or status.
an academic gown.
-
the student and teaching body in a university or college town.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
any of various outer garments, such as a woman's elegant or formal dress, a dressing robe, or a protective garment, esp one worn by surgeons during operations
-
a loose wide garment indicating status, such as worn by academics
-
the members of a university as opposed to the other residents of the university town Compare town
verb
Synonym Usage
See dress.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gown
1300–50; Middle English goune < Old French < Late Latin gunna fur or leather garment
Explanation
A gown is a formal dress. When your date to a party or dance is wearing a tuxedo, you'll probably want to wear a gown. There are many different kinds of gowns, including ball gowns, wedding gowns, and evening gowns. All of them are worn primarily by women on formal occasions. It was once common to call any one-piece woman's garment a gown, while now it's more often called a dress. The source of gown is the Old French goune, "robe, coat, or down," with the Latin root gunna, "hide or skin."
Vocabulary lists containing gown
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.
See Examples For:
Lhuillier posted some clips from the Vogue fitting on social media and wrote that designing Roberts’ gown was about capturing a feeling of timeless romance through a modern lens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The 38-year-old engineer said it was her husband's idea to bring Luna -- who dressed for the occasion in a pink tulle gown.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
Famed American sports broadcaster Erin Andrews was also seen in a silver sparkly gown and Swift's longtime publicist, Tree Paine, wore a light blue dress.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
Her mother was one of 2,075 brides wearing the “Blessing Dress,” a white polyester and satin gown with puffed sleeves and a modest high neckline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
The whole gown was about as worn out as an old dishrag, but I wasn’t about to start complaining.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
In the meantime, the AI gowns and Easter-egg hunts will have to suffice.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
At a makeshift morgue in the quake-hit Venezuelan port of La Guaira, forensic experts in blue gowns and caps picked their way through dozens of bodies laid out in bags under the sun.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
However by the end of 2022, the government sued the firm, claiming the medical gowns supplied did not comply with relevant healthcare standards.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
In the sappier one, Chávez’s face is inside a sun, like the baby in “Teletubbies,” hanging over a boy and girl in graduation gowns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
We slip out of our hospital gowns and quietly duck into the hallway, the backpack strapped onto Max's shoulders.
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
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.
