mien
Americannoun
-
miens
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mien
1505–15; probably aphetic variant of obsolete demean bearing, demean 2; spelled with -ie- to distinguish it from mean 2
Explanation
Your mien is how you present yourself, the impression you make. It's best to keep a low profile but a dignified mien. The source of the word mien is not completely clear, but it does involve a French word for "facial expression." A person's mien is a look or quality that tells a lot about their personalities or temperaments. A person with a cheerful mien probably radiates happiness and energy, while someone with a serious mien may have an air of being lost in thought.
Vocabulary lists containing mien
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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:
It brings me no pleasure to report that Trump possessed the perfect mien for the performance of wrestling.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
In his cratered and ravaged mien we see the impress of time, yet also dignity and fortitude.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
The directors, called to an emergency meeting at the home of the chairman of the board of the American Steel Corp., have the haughty mien of British aristocrats.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
It captures some of the inquisitive humanity that Steinmetz, a tall and direct people’s person with a John Malkovich mien, conveys in life.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2024
Two young ladies appeared before me; one very tall, almost as tall as Miss Ingram—very thin too, with a sallow face and severe mien.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Played with hangdog miens by the gifted Mr. Dossett and Mr. Sills, these men soon betray their bosses and switch sides.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2016
The cheerful, demonstrative callowness of Herring’s Joey makes for an apt-enough contrast with the miens of the older figures, and Carpenter’s Mark is a sensitive, thoughtful foil to everyone else.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 5, 2015
Here were traditional outsiders, some of them outspoken victims of childhood bullying, who, twenty years ago, were dismissed by the jock establishment for bringing their alternative fashion sense and disaffected miens to an Olympic-style competition.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 17, 2014
Yet while they never quite eradicate their masculine miens and mannerisms, they never feel more truly themselves than when they’re wearing women’s clothes.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2014
Their manners and miens reflected the Spartan personal discipline the organization demanded, and none of them would utter anything but Nation of Islam cliches.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
