mien

[ meen ]

noun

1. air, bearing, or demeanor, as showing character, feeling, etc.:

   a man of noble mien.

   Synonyms: carriage, look, appearance

mien

/ miːn /

noun

1. literary.
   a person's manner, bearing, or appearance, expressing personality or mood

   a noble mien

Word History and Origins

Origin of mien¹

1505–15; probably aphetic variant of obsolete demean bearing, demean ²; spelled with -ie- to distinguish it from mean ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of mien¹

C16: probably variant of obsolete demean appearance; related to French mine aspect

Example Sentences

Cakes selected a clown with a gun, as De Niro’s mien scowled on the screen above.

From New York Times

In mien, in dress, in catch phrase and in temperament.

From Los Angeles Times

Instead, the carefully prepared Cohen was subdued and succinct, admitting his lies and misdeeds in service of Donald Trump with a sorrowful mien.

From Salon

His vaguely lined mien suggests premature strain, which feels at odds with a character we’re to take as an expert dissembler, not to say a sociopath.

From Los Angeles Times

Quickly, they assembled a ranked list of about a dozen men, more diverse in ethnicity and mien than Tolins’s initial character description — “old WASP-y money” — might suggest.

From New York Times

Related Words

• countenance
• demeanor