Dungarees are sturdy work pants made from heavy cotton fabric, often denim. Today, most people call them jeans or denim pants, but some still use the old-fashioned term dungarees.

These pants became popular because they could survive hard work. Miners during the California Gold Rush wore dungarees that held up through digging, crawling, and climbing. Factory workers, farmers, and railroad crews all relied on dungarees because regular pants would tear or wear out too quickly. The thick fabric and strong stitching meant they lasted for years, not months.

In some places, especially Britain, people use dungarees to mean overalls: pants with a bib front and straps over the shoulders. But in America, dungarees usually just means regular denim pants. Your grandparents might still call your favorite jeans “dungarees,” using the word they grew up with. Whether you call them jeans, dungarees, or denim pants, you're talking about the same tough pants that have been keeping workers comfortable for over 150 years.