chiton

UK/ˈkaɪtn̩//ˈkaɪtn̩/

chiton noun: a loose woolen tunic worn by men and women in Ancient Greece and in Ancient Rome.

Image: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

chiton (plural chitons or chitones)

(historical) A loose woolen tunic worn by men and women in Ancient Greece and in Ancient Rome.
- The Athenian maiden, unlike her Spartan sister, did not think it proper to publicly exhibit her bodily skill and beauty in a short chiton, but taking a bath seems to have been among her every-day habits as is shown by the numerous bathing scenes on vases.1884, Levi Walter Yaggy, Thomas Louis Haines, Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life, Madison, Wis.: J.B. Furman & Co
- On the night of our first attempt, we simply overdrank and passed out in our chitons in the woods near Francis’s house.1992, Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Noun (2)

chiton (plural chitons)

Any of various rock-clinging marine molluscs of the class Polyplacophora, including the genus Chiton.
- In the giant chiton, Cryptochiton, this girdle has expanded so as to completely cover the plates.1969, Sam Hinton, chapter I, in Seashore Life of Southern California, page 72
- The chiton (Fig. 14.1 a) is depressed (dorso-ventrally flattened), with a large foot which has a flat sole.1979, R. McNeill Alexander, chapter I, in The Invertebrates, page 295
Synonyms:

coat-of-mail shell, gumboot, loricate, polyplacophoran, polyplacophore, sea cradle, sea bug

chiton meaning in Marathi and Vietnamese

chiton in Marathi

Greek tunic: कायटन kāyṭan, खिटोन khiṭon

Examples of chiton in a sentence

She wears a diaphanous himation that covers her torso, over a floor-length chiton of heavier fabric.1998, Colette Susan Czapski, “NM238: A Hellenistic Statue and Its Archaistic Support”, in Kim J. Hartswick, Mary Carol Sturgeon, editors...
She wears a chiton and himation, using both hands to hold the edge of the latter, in which she has gathered apples.2002, chapter I, in Nikolaos Kaltsas, editor, Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, page 156:
The bright orange gumboot chiton (Cryptochiton stelleri) is the largest in the world.1996, Paul Henson, chapter I, in The Natural History of Big Sur, page 70:

Synonyms of chiton

All synonyms of chiton

Forms of chiton

plural	chitons
plural	chitones
alternative form	khiton

Origin of chiton

From Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn, “tunic”), from a Central Semitic *kittan, from the Akkadian 𒌆𒃰 (kitû, literally “flax, linen”), from Sumerian 𒄑𒃰 (kitû [GIŠ.GADA]).

] From New Latin chiton. See above.

Words formed from chiton

lined chiton

Words that rhyme with chiton

Questions about chiton

What does chiton mean?: Chiton means a loose woolen tunic worn by men and women in Ancient Greece and in Ancient Rome.
What is chiton in Marathi?: Chiton in Marathi is कायटन (kāyṭan), खिटोन (khiṭon). See Chiton meaning in Marathi.
How do you use chiton in a sentence?: She wears a diaphanous himation that covers her torso, over a floor-length chiton of heavier fabric.
What part of speech is chiton?: Chiton is a noun.
How do you pronounce chiton?: Chiton is pronounced /ˈkaɪtn̩/ (US).
What is the plural of chiton?: The plural of chiton is chitons.

Words near chiton in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: chiton (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chiton.wav.

Cite this entry: “chiton.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chiton. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.