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:
People kept partying but I needed to hunt for the lost and found station, which had thoughtfully posted a picture of my mitten online.
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
He drew his knife from its sheath, and slipped off his mitten to lay his hand on the cold blue slate.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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
"I communicate with Nuuk from this tablet," Mathiassen said, pulling off her sealskin mittens to turn on the device.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
It was so cold that the instant I stepped inside — wearing a face mask, earmuffs and mittens for protection — ice crystals began to form on my nose and snowflakes fell from the ceiling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2024
I have my mittens and coat on, and my empty backpack to fill with books.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
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.
