gym shorts
gym shorts noun: a type of relatively lightweight shorts with elastic waistbands designed for use in sports and physical activity, especially gym class. The terms basketball shorts and mesh shorts are used nearly synonymously with gym shorts in the United States, despite their different initial usage.

Noun
gym shorts pl (plural only)
Origin of gym shorts
gym (short for gymnastics) + shorts
Questions about gym shorts
- What does gym shorts mean?
- Gym shorts means a type of relatively lightweight shorts with elastic waistbands designed for use in sports and physical activity, especially gym class. The terms basketball shorts and mesh shorts are used nearly synonymously with gym shorts in the United States, despite their different initial usage.
- What part of speech is gym shorts?
- Gym shorts is a noun.
Words near gym shorts in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gym shorts (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:
Cite this entry: “gym shorts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gym_shorts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
