mitten
Americannoun
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mittens
plural
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a hand covering enclosing the four fingers together and the thumb separately.
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mitt.
noun
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Sometimes shortened to: mitt. a glove having one section for the thumb and a single section for the other fingers
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slang a boxing glove
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mitten
1350–1400; Middle English miteyn < Middle French, Old French mitaine, equivalent to mite mitten (< ?) + -aine -an
Explanation
A mitten is a cold-weather piece of clothing that you wear on your hand. Unlike gloves, which cover each finger individually, mittens cover your four fingers together, and your thumb separately. Mittens keep your hands warmer than gloves, because your fingers share their warmth and expose less surface area to the cold. Small children often wear mittens — they're easier to put on than gloves are, and it's common for them to be attached to each other with yarn that can be threaded through the arms of a coat, or clipped onto a coat's sleeves. The word mitten comes from medietana, "divided in the middle" in Vulgar Latin.
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:
Ironically, I couldn’t find the office — no one, not even the information desk, knew where it was — but they very kindly walked my mitten over to me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026
The day he arrived, on the bottom of a fishing boat, along with about 80 seasick travellers, he was hired by a mitten factory.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
Hemlock is a small town located in the crook of the Michigan mitten, between the thumb and the fingers.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025
They can mirror each other precisely, but a left mitten will never fit the right hand as well as it fits the left hand.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2024
She tore a fiber from the skin, threaded her needle, and began to stitch the mitten.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
Walters gave him a box filled with handmade items, including piles of mittens, hats, and other items he’d crocheted for children; Collins dropped the box off with a church deacon.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Friends are welcome to send mittens, ski caps and hot soup when the snow comes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
She even resisted when Rachel opened a used bookstore several years ago in Southwest Ohio and based her holiday windows on “Little House,” decorated with red mittens and lit-up log cabins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
It warms the inside and lets you study the cold without mittens.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026
She put on Laura’s coat and mittens and the warm cape with the hood, and wrapped a muffler around her neck, and let her go.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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.
