Green beans are the unripe, young fruit of various cultivars of the common bean. Immature or young pods of the runner bean, yardlong bean, and hyacinth bean are used in a similar way. Green beans are known by many common names, including French beans, string beans, snap beans, snaps, and the French name haricot vert.

What does it mean to be called a string bean?

slang A very skinny or lanky person. I was such a string bean as a kid that all my clothes draped off me. ...

What is the difference between green beans and string beans?

Green beans and string beans are one and the same, but the "string" term is, for the most part, outdated. Green beans used to have characteristic fibrous "strings" running down the length of the pod that had to be removed bean by bean, just like snap peas.