parka
Americannoun
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parkas
plural
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a fur coat, shirtlike and hooded, for wear in the Arctic and other regions of extreme cold.
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a hip-length jacket or overshirt with an attached hood, often of wool or of a windproof, water-repellent material lined or trimmed with wool, used by skiers, hunters, the military, etc.
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any coat or jacket with a hood, as a hooded raincoat or windbreaker.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of parka
First recorded in 1770–80; from Aleut or Yupik or directly from dialectal Russian párka, from Komi or directly from Nenets
Explanation
A parka is an insulated, waterproof coat with a hood. Before you head out on a winter camping trip in Canada, you'll want to make sure your parka is warm enough. Parkas are designed to block the wind and keep you warm — they are often lined with fur or another plush, cozy material. The earliest version of the parka was invented by Canadian Inuits, using caribou or seal skin and fur, and coated with fish oil to make it waterproof. Parka is an Aleut word that means "animal skins," and it's also used in Russian to mean "a jacket made from a pelt."
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:
Factoring them into the sales price would have added another $200 to the cost of a parka priced at $400 to $600.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
The crowd are far more likely to spend their day in the sunshine on Saturday, but it will still be blustery and may feel slightly cool – the perfect weather to break out a parka.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025
Danvers corners the figure in the parka, but when the man removes his hood, it’s Heiss, who crumbles into a ball and begins to weep.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2024
Even before those Olympics, it was clear that barring something unfortunate, Gu had a good chance to be rich no matter which path she chose — or which country’s flag she put on her parka.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 27, 2024
She was wearing a parka she had made in the summer of fox fur and wolverine.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
Puffer jackets cut like dresses and huge parkas topped with XXL fake fur hats completed the look of the "hot as ice" team, as one jumper had it.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
In winter it’s not uncommon to see Somalis in traditional dress bundled up in big American-style parkas and stocking caps worn over hijabs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025
A hundred workers in parkas and ruanas began to load the trucks, each one bound for a different section of the Colombian capital.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2024
Dressed in parkas and knit caps, the three volunteers lug crates of power tools and spooled wire into the gleaming mountaintop edifice that some have called astronomy’s “Sistine Chapel” and immediately start tinkering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2023
Indigenous peoples are portrayed as having helped make the country great by sharing corn, beans, buckskin, log cabins, parkas, maple syrup, canoes, and even the basic concepts of democracy.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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.
