jeans

From Gene(s) (also spelled Jean(s)), an obsolete English name for the Italian city of Genoa. Compare French Gênes. In the context of clothing, the term originally denoted a kind of coarse cotton (known more fully as Gene(s) fustian) that was associated with Genoa. It began to be used for trousers made of such cloth in the 19th century. At this point, the final -s was reanalysed as a plural ending.

• enPR: jēnz, IPA^(key): /d͡ʒiːnz/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Homophone: genes
• Rhymes: -iːnz

jeans pl (plural only)

2. (clothing) A pair of trousers made from denim cotton.

   Traditionally most jeans are dyed dark blue.

   • 1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 19:

     As a general thing, they were dressed in homespun “jeans,” blue or yellow—there were no other varieties of it; all wore one suspender and sometimes two—yarn ones knitted at home,—some wore vests, but few wore coats.

   • 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

   • 2025 December 6, Tom Murray, quoting Sydney Sweeney, “Sydney Sweeney admits her silence on divisive jeans advert made controversy worse”, in The Independent‎^[1]:

     She added: “I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.”

jeans

1. plural of jean

• See also Thesaurus:trousers

• Genoese, Genovese

• → Greek: τζιν (tzin)
• → Hindi: जीन्स (jīns)
• → Irish: jíons
• → Polish: dżinsy
• → Russian: джи́нсы (džínsy)
  • → Livvi: džinsat

• 👖

• Janes, janes

• jean (obsolete)

Borrowed from English jeans.

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jeans f (plural jeans, diminutive jeansje n)

1. a pair of jeans (denim trousers)
2. (by extension) any denim garment
3. (invariable) the cotton fabric denim

• (trousers): jeansbroek m, spijkerbroek m

• jeanstint

• blue jeans
• Genuees m & adjective

• IPA^(key): /dʒin/, (after English) /dʒins/

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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jeans m

1. plural of jean

Borrowed from English jeans.

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒins/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ins

• Audio:

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jeans m pl (plural only)

1. jeans (trousers)

   Synonym: (rare) ginsi

   Hypernym: pantaloni

   di jeans ― jean, denim (relational)

• jeans in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Borrowed from English jeans.

jeans m pl

1. (Jersey) jeans

Unadapted borrowing from English jeans. Doublet of Génova. The feminine and feminine plural genders for sense “denim trousers” stem from an ellipsis of calça jeans / calças jeans (“denim trousers”).

• Rhymes: -ĩs
• Hyphenation: jeans

jeans m (uncountable)

1. (Brazil) denim (type of textile)

   Synonyms: brim, denim, ganga

   O jeans é frequentemente tingido de anil. ― Denim is often dyed indigo.

jeans m or f or m pl or f pl (sometimes plural only, in variation, invariable)

1. jeans (denim trousers)

   Synonym: (Portugal) calças de ganga

   Ontem usei uns jeans brancos. ― Yesterday I wore some white jeans.

jeans (invariable, not comparable)

1. (Brazil, relational) denim

   calça jeans ― denim trousers; jeans

   saia jeans ― denim skirt

   jaqueta jeans. ― denim jacket

• “jeans”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “jeans”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2026
• “jeans”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “jeans”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
• “jeans”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN

Unadapted borrowing from English jeans.

• Rhymes: -ins

jeans m (plural jeans)

1. jeans (trousers)

   Synonym: pantalones vaqueros

2. plural of jean

• Spelling proscribed as an anglicism; the spelling yin or yines is preferred.^[1]

jeans c

1. (plural only) jeans

• jeans in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• jeans in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)