pants

UK/pænts/

pants noun: an outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers. Also the plural of pant.

Image: Gigano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pants pl (plural only, attributive pant)

(Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Northern England, Philippines) An outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers.
- “But they cover the legs,” Joseph explained. “That is the only reason my people wear pants: to cover the legs in the winter, or when traveling through rough country, full of thorns. In warm weather, or in open country, pants are unnecessary, uncomfortable, and foolish.”1933, Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms, published 1996, page 220
- It's in the evening after dark when the blackleg miner creeps to work. With his moleskin pants and his dirty shirt, there goes the blackleg miner.1970 June, traditional, “The Blackleg Miner” (track 4), in Hark! The Village Wait, performed by Steeleye Span
Synonyms:

breeks, britches, hosen, slacks, strides, trousers
(UK, plural, plural-only) An undergarment that covers the genitals and often the buttocks and the neighbouring parts of the body; underpants.
- I decided to pass up her underclothes, not from feelings of delicacy, but because I couldn't see myself putting her pants on and snapping her brassière.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 39
- Big girls get candy for dry pants.1976, Nathan H. Azrin, Richard M. Foxx, Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, published 1988, page 127
Synonyms:

underwear
(UK, plural, plural-only, slang) Rubbish; something worthless.
- You're talking pants!
- The film was a load [or pile] of pants.

Adjective

pants (comparative more pants, superlative most pants)

(UK, slang) Of inferior quality, rubbish.
- Your mobile is pants — why don’t you get one like mine?
- 'Is that what you're going to do when you graduate?' he asked. 'Be a photographer?'
  'I wish, but I'm pants at the technical stuff. ...'2015, T. R. Richmond, What She Left, Penguin Books, page 39

Verb

pants (third-person singular simple present pantses, present participle pantsing, simple past and past participle pantsed)

To pull someone’s pants down; to forcibly remove someone’s pants.
- Keith Gerber has been pantsed twice already this summer by Lannie and Cling, and so his face is more resolved, the fear tempered by the fact that he understands these things to be inevitable.1948, Carolina Quarterly, University of California, page 47
- [T]he other boys, Stretch Latham and Rod Becker mainly, pantsed him, got his jockey shorts away and threw them onto Hubcap Willie’s roof.1980, William Hogan (author), The Quartzsite Trip, Atheneum, page 242
Synonyms:

depants, de-pants, debag, keg, dack, sag

Proper noun capitalized: Pants

Pants

(plural) plural of Pant

Also used as

pants is also the plural of pant.

pants is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of pant.

pants meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

pants in Hindi

garment covering the body from the waist downwards: पतलून patlūn, पैंट paiṇṭ

pants in Tamil

garment covering the body from the waist downwards: குப்பாயம் kuppāyam
undergarment covering the genitals: ஜட்டி jaṭṭi

pants in Urdu

garment covering the body from the waist downwards: پَتلُون patlūn, پَینْٹ painṭ

pants in Bengali

garment covering the body from the waist downwards: প্যান্ট pênṭo

More languagesFewer languages

pants in Telugu: ప్యాంటు pyāṇṭu, పంట్లాం paṇṭlāṁ
pants in Gujarati: સુરવાલ survāl, પાયજામો pāyajāmo, લેંઘો leṅgho, પાટલૂન pāṭlūn
pants in Sinhala: කලිසම kalisama
pants in Pashto: پرتوګ partug
pants in Tagalog: pantalon
pants in Arabic: بِنْطَال binṭāl, سِرْوَال sirwāl, بَنْطَلُون banṭalōn, سِرْوَال اَلسُّنَة sirwāl as-suna
pants in Malay: seluar, celana, seluar dalam, hampas
pants in Indonesian: celana, celana dalam, cawat
pants in Thai: กางเกง gaang-geeng
pants in Vietnamese: quần lót dài, quần
pants in Myanmar: ဘောင်းဘီ bhaung:bhi

Examples of pants in a sentence

I tried to pull my pants up with my boxing gloves but without success.[…]In those days nobody wore underpants and I was bare-arsed and fancy free in front of everyone.1989, Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One, Penguin, published 2006, page 427:
Look for pants with reinforced seats and knees and full-length side zippers that make it possible to put the pants on while you are wearing boots, crampons, skis, or snowshoes.2010, Ronald C. Eng, editor, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 8th edition, US: The Mountaineers Books, page 24:
I rolled up the legs of the pants, then I went back into the trees.2005, Octavia E. Butler, Fledgling, page 12:
Taylor was seen nearby and had a three foot machete down his pants.2014 January 13, “Blackburn man hid machete down his trousers”, in The Lancashire Telegraph:

All 40 example sentences with pants

Synonyms of pants

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pants

Forms of pants

Noun
attributive	pant
Adjective
comparative	more pants
superlative	most pants
Verb
third-person singular present	pantses
present participle	pantsing
past participle	pantsed
past	pantsed

Origin of pants

Shortened from pantaloons (“trousers”): borrowed from French pantalon, itself derived from Italian Pantalone, one of the principal characters found in commedia dell'arte, who wore tight trousers. Doublet of pantsu. The verb is from the noun.

Words formed from pants

Phrases with pants

133 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with pants

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pants

What does pants mean?: Pants means an outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers.
What is pants in Hindi?: Pants in Hindi is पतलून (patlūn), पैंट (paiṇṭ). See Pants meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pants in a sentence?: I tried to pull my pants up with my boxing gloves but without success.[…]In those days nobody wore underpants and I was bare-arsed and fancy free in front of everyone.
What part of speech is pants?: Pants can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pants?: Pants is pronounced /pænts/ (UK).

Words near pants in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: pants (page history and authors); Pants (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: en-us-pants.ogg, en-au-pants.ogg.

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