jinn

American

[jin] / dʒɪn /

Also jinni

noun

Islamic Mythology.

plural

jinns,

plural

jinn

any of a class of spirits, lower than the angels, capable of appearing in human and animal forms and influencing humankind for either good or evil.

jinn British

/ dʒɪn /

noun

(often functioning as singular) the plural of jinni

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of jinn

1675–85; plural of Arabic jinnī demon

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.

Some said they also worried that reporting what had happened might provoke the jinn to take revenge on them.

From BBC • Aug. 7, 2023

“The jinn was instructing him to behave in that alleged behavior,” the psychiatrist added.

From Seattle Times • May 2, 2019

She has a cinematic, out-of-body, approach to songwriting; Eilish imagines herself as a sneaky jinn or a bored wallflower and then writes what she sees.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 26, 2019

"There has to be a tipping point. You can't put the jinn back in the bottle. All of us have either kept quiet out of fear or shame or complicity, but now we can't."

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2017

The jinn stood fast, but they were too few.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023