pantyhose
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pantyhose
First recorded in 1960–65
Explanation
Pantyhose are sheer tights, a garment that snugly covers your legs. It was once very common for certain jobs to require women to wear pantyhose. You might call pantyhose tights or stockings — this word is uncommon outside of the US, and it's typically used for a particularly thin, sheer hosiery with built-in underwear. Pantyhose were invented in the 1960s, replacing old fashioned knee-high stockings that were held in place with garters. The name pantyhose is a combination of panty, undergarment or underwear, and hose, which is short for hosiery.
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.
Worse, I was wearing a dress and thin pantyhose.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
Air Force veteran Reality Winner smuggled out a classified report on Russian election hacking by tucking it in her pantyhose.
From Salon • Jun. 30, 2025
Later, they discovered that the material could be stuffed into recycled burlap sacks and pantyhose to make booms or mats that would soak up oil.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2024
Court records show that for the analysis, prosecutors submitted pantyhose, a skirt and shoes left behind to a California lab, but it didn’t find much.
From Washington Post • Oct. 20, 2022
A boy with lime-colored hair who looks like he’s channeling for an alien species dozes; two Goths in black velvet dresses and artfully torn pantyhose trade Mona Lisa smiles.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
