Fashion Meaning
/ˈfæʃn̩/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA current (constantly changing) trend, favored for frivolous rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons.
nounPopular trends, especially in clothing; the industry that designs clothing and sometimes other related items.
Sentence Examples
You may think those shoes are in fashion, but they aren't.
School uniforms are just out of fashion.
She designed a new fashion line for the spring season.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She launched a new line of clothing in the spring ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She works in the ____ industry, helping to design clothes for some of the world's top brands.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English facioun, from Anglo-Norman fechoun (compare Jersey Norman faichon), variant of Old French faceon, fazon, façon (“fashion, form, make, outward appearance”), from Latin factiō (“a making”), from faciō (“do, make”); see fact. Doublet of faction.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"the innocent diversions in fashion"
— 1693, [John Locke], “§208”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
"As now existing, fashion is a form of social regulation analogous to constitutional government as a form of political regulation: displaying, as it does, a compromise between governmental coercion and individual freedom."
— 1900 [1879], Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, volume II, part IV: Ceremonial Institutions, page 215:
"Ophelia: My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honourable fashion.
Lord Polonius: Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to."
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
"When it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon its tail."
— 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter V, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She launched a new line of clothing in the spring ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She works in the ____ industry, helping to design clothes for some of the world's top brands.