Word.ws English Dictionary

gents

/ˈdʒɛnts/

gents is the plural of gent.

Meaning of gent

Noun

gent (plural gents)

  1. (colloquial) A gentleman.
    • He's the hairy-handed gent who ran amuck in Kent.1978, “Werewolves of London”, in Warren Zevon, LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel (music), Excitable Boy, performed by Warren Zevon

See all 4 meanings of gent

Noun (1)

gents (plural gents)

  1. (UK, euphemistic, informal) A men's room: a lavatory intended for use by men.
    • Where is the gents? I need a slash.
    • A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27
    Synonyms:
    men's, gents'

Noun (2) capitalized: Gents

Gents (plural Gents)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of gents: a men's room, a lavatory intended for use by men.
    • "I don't want to go in there like this. We'll go to the Gents and see you back in the car park"...
      Naylor... started to walk him towards the toilet.2011, John Harvey, Lonely Hearts, page 64
    • One unidentified man spoke of how he was approached to "go to the Gents" with an MP at an event for young political activists while another man described how an MP invited his entire office staff to a gay bar.2014 April 11, Charlotte Meredith, “The Palace of Sexminster”, in Huffington Post: United Kingdom

Synonyms of gents

Forms of gents

alternative formGents
pluralgents
pluralGents

Origin of gents

A clipped form of gentlemen. As a room, via misspelling of gents', a clipped form of gentlemen's room.

Phrases with gents

Words that rhyme with gents

Questions about gents

What does gents mean?
Gents means a men's room: a lavatory intended for use by men.
What is gents the plural of?
Gents is the plural of gent.
What part of speech is gents?
Gents is a noun.
How do you pronounce gents?
Gents is pronounced /ˈdʒɛnts/ (UK).
What is the plural of gents?
The plural of gents is gents.

Words near gents in the dictionary

  1. gentry cove's ken
  2. gentry cove's kens
  3. gentry coves
  4. gentry mort
  5. gentry morts
  6. gents
  7. gents'
  8. Gentu
  9. Gentue
  10. Gentues
  11. Gentus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gents (page history and authors); Gents (page history and authors); gent (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gents.wav.

Cite this entry: “gents.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gents. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.