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bikini

UK/bɪˈkiː.ni/US/bɪˈki.ni/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,293 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: bikinis

A bikini is a two-piece swimming costume for a woman. Wear a bikini, a bikini top, bikini season.

It is named after Bikini Atoll, where nuclear tests were held in 1946, because the designer expected the reaction to be explosive. The name is why the later one-piece variant was called a monokini.

John · CC BY-SA 2.0

Definitions of bikini

  1. 1nounbikiniA two-piece swimming costume for a woman.B2

    “She put on her bikini and ran down to the sea.”

bikini is a garment.

Where it comes from

Named in 1946 after Bikini Atoll, where the United States tested nuclear weapons.

  1. French

    bikini

  2. English, today

    bikini

Borrowed from French bikini. From French bikini, named after the place name Bikini, from English Bikini, the name of the atoll where the United States tested nuclear weapons in July 1946; it was reckoned that the bathing suit would cause as much excitement as a nuclear bomb. This name was originally from German Bikini, the colonial name of the atoll as part of German New Guinea, and this was derived from mh Pikinni.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

bikini in the wild

  • Because of its revealing design, the bikini was once considered controversial, facing opposition from a number of groups and being accepted only very slowly by the general public.

    Bikini

  • Similarly, a variety of men's and women's underwear types are described as bikini underwear.

    Bikini

  • "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" is a novelty song telling the story of a shy girl wearing a revealing polka dot bikini at the beach.

    Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini

  • Hickman called it "AIP's attempt to combine horror, bikini babe and secret agents and take advantage of the popularity of the James Bond pictures".

    Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine

  • Some bikini designs cover larger portions of the wearer's body while other designs provide minimal coverage.

    Bikini variants

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.