Pants are a piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist down to your ankles, with separate sections for each leg. They're what most people wear every day instead of skirts or dresses.

The word means different things depending on where you are. In America, pants refers to what you pull on over your legs in the morning: jeans, khakis, sweatpants, dress pants. But in Britain and some other countries, pants means underwear, and what Americans call pants, the British call trousers. This can create funny misunderstandings when Americans and British people talk about getting dressed.

The phrase “by the seat of your pants” means doing something through instinct and quick reactions rather than careful planning. If you're flying by the seat of your pants during a presentation, you're making it up as you go along because you didn't prepare. Similarly, when someone says a movie or game scared the pants off them, they mean it was extremely frightening.