Pajamas

How to spell pajamas

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce pajamas

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pajamas mean?

1. nounA loose set of trousers and a top worn for sleeping or lounging.

Pajamas in a sentence

• She changed into warm flannel pajamas before bed.

• The children wore matching pajamas on the snowy morning.

Where does pajamas come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word travelled into English from Hindi and Urdu, where pajama described loose trousers tied at the waist, and that term itself was borrowed from Persian. In Persian the compound joined pay or pa, meaning 'leg' or 'foot', with jama, meaning 'garment' or 'clothing', so the word literally named a 'leg garment'. British colonists in India during the 1700s and 1800s adopted the comfortable trousers and the name along with them, at first for the loose drawers worn in the East and later for the matching sleepwear set worn in the West. The spelling settled differently across dialects: American and Canadian writers favour 'pajamas' with an 'a', while British writers keep 'pyjamas' with a 'y'. The almost always plural form reflects the two-legged garment, which is why the word is rarely seen without its final 's'.

How the word is built

• paj- (from Persian/Hindi pay: leg)
• ama (from jama: garment)
• -s (plural)

British and American spelling

Pajamas is the American spelling. British English spells it pyjamas.