Tights are a snug-fitting garment that covers the legs and often the waist, made from stretchy fabric like nylon or spandex. They fit close to the skin, almost like a second layer, and come in many colors and thicknesses.

Ballet dancers wear tights so they can move freely while performing leaps and turns. The stretchy fabric moves with their bodies without bunching up or getting in the way. Gymnasts and figure skaters wear them for the same reason: tights allow complete freedom of movement while looking neat and polished.

Women and girls often wear tights under skirts or dresses, especially in cold weather, as an extra layer of warmth. Some tights are thick and opaque (you can't see through them), while others are sheer and delicate, almost see-through.

In British English, what Americans call pantyhose are simply called tights. The word can also refer to the colorful, close-fitting pants that superheroes wear in comic books, or the historically accurate leg coverings worn by medieval knights and Renaissance nobles under their tunics.