toilet

Syllables: toi·let/ˈtɔɪ.lət/

toilet noun: a room, enclosed area or single-purpose building containing a fixture or fixtures used for urination and defecation; a bathroom or water closet.

Image: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

toilet (plural toilets)

(Australia, Hong-Kong, India, UK) A room, enclosed area or single-purpose building containing a fixture or fixtures used for urination and defecation; a bathroom or water closet.
- Sorry, I was in the toilet.
- He would hit her when she cried and, if this did not work, would lock her in the toilet for hours on end.2002, Digby Tantam, Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice: A Narrative Framework, page 122
Synonyms:

facilities
1. (Australia, Hong-Kong, India, New Zealand, UK) A small secondary lavatory having a fixture used for urination and defecation and sink but no bathtub or shower.
A fixture used for urination and defecation, particularly one with a large bowl and ring-shaped seat which uses water to flush the waste material into a septic tank or sewer system.
- My toilet got clogged. Now the bathroom's flooded.
(figuratively) A very shabby or dirty place.
- Look around you. It's a toilet.1982, The Mosquito Coast
- Mr. Gaunt was urbane and smiling again, not a hair out of place. "Do you like this little town? Do you love it? […]" / […] "I hate this fucking toilet," he said to Leland Gaunt.1991, Stephen King, Needful Things
(obsolete) A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a dressing table in a chamber or dressing room.
(obsolete) The table covered by such a cloth; a dressing table.
- And now, unveil’d, the toilet stands display’d, / Each silver vase in mystic order laid.1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, lines 121-126
(archaic, historical) Personal grooming; the process of washing, dressing and arranging the hair.
- Against that short evening her toilet was consulted the whole day […].1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Oxford, published 2009, page 118
- Beautiful eyes are the gift of Nature, and can owe little to the toilet.1876, Eliza Bisbee Duffey, Our Behaviour: A Manual of Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society, Philadelphia
Synonyms:

toilette
(archaic) One's style of dressing: dress, outfit.
- It is so painful in you, Celia, that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilette, and never see the great soul in a man's face.1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 25
- "It is a quarter-past two," he said. "Your telegram was dispatched about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without seeing that your disturbance dates from the moment of your waking."1917, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge
(archaic) A dressing room.
(obsolete) A chamber pot.

Synonyms:

can, chamber, chamber pot, chemical toilet, commode, Cousin John, crapper, gazunder, guzunder, honey bucket
(derogatory, incel slang) A woman.
- I’m not interested in toilets and I don’t think a gf [Girlfriend] is needed to live a fulfilling life.2021, anonymous, quoted in Hugo Engholm, "The lack of looks: A study on the Incel ideology of Incelism during the 2010s–2020s and its relation to historical and contemporary ideologies particularly...
- A user, @blacklister, concludes that “toilets are as vacuous as their value besides pleasing men”, with a remark on how women should be handed out by the state to every man to minimise inceldom.2022, Elina Maaranen, "How incel users' communication discriminate women", thesis submitted to Karlstad University, page 24

Verb

toilet (third-person singular simple present toilets, present participle toileting or (rare) toiletting, simple past and past participle toileted or (rare) toiletted)

(dated) To dress and groom oneself.
To use (urinate or defecate in) a toilet.
- We use imitation. We take a doll, a doll that can wet, and make sure it has pants on it. We use the principle that a very effective way of learning is by teaching. Se we have him teach the doll how to toilet properly.1974, Philip J. Hilts, Behavior Mod, Harper's Magazine Press, page 74
- In many developing regions, toileting at night is especially dangerous for children. Without electrical power for lighting, kids may fall into the deep pits of the latrines through broken or unsteady floorboards. Girls are sometimes assaulted by men who hide in the dark.2024 February 17 (last accessed), Jenny Morber, “Scientists turn pee into power in Uganda”, in Upworthy Science, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2024
To assist another (a child, etc.) in using a toilet.

Synonyms:

bathroom

toilet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

toilet in Hindi

room used for urination and defecation — see also bathroom, men's room, ladies' room, outhouse, portable toilet, latrine, shitter, water closet: शौचालय śaucālay, टॉयलेट ṭŏyleṭ, प्रसाधन prasādhan

toilet in Tamil

room used for urination and defecation — see also bathroom, men's room, ladies' room, outhouse, portable toilet, latrine, shitter, water closet: உடுத்துதல் uṭuttutal, கழிவறை kaḻivaṟai, கழிப்பறை kaḻippaṟai
fixture used for urination and defecation — see also flush toilet, squat toilet, chemical toilet, urinal, latrine, water closet: கக்கூசு kakkūcu

toilet in Marathi

room used for urination and defecation — see also bathroom, men's room, ladies' room, outhouse, portable toilet, latrine, shitter, water closet: शौचालय śaucālay

toilet in Urdu

room used for urination and defecation — see also bathroom, men's room, ladies' room, outhouse, portable toilet, latrine, shitter, water closet: پاخانَہ pāxāna, بَیتُ الْخَلاء baitu l-xalā', بَیتُ الْخَلا baitu l-xalā, جائے ضَرُور jāe zarūr, حاجَت گاہ hājat gāh, صِحَت خانَہ sihat xāna

More languagesFewer languages

toilet in Bengali: শৌচাগার śōucagar, পায়খানা paẏkhana, টয়লেট ṭoẏleṭ
toilet in Telugu: మరుగు దొడ్డి marugu doḍḍi, స్నానాలగది snānālagadi, పాయిఖానా pāyikhānā, ముస్తాబు mustābu
toilet in Malayalam: കക്കൂസ് kakkūsŭ, ശൗചാലയം śaucālayaṁ
toilet in Kannada: ಪ್ರಸಾಧನ prasādhana
toilet in Punjabi: ਟਾਇਲਟ ṭāilaṭ, ਟੱਟੀ ṭaṭṭī
toilet in Gujarati: શૌચાલય śaucālya
toilet in Odia: ପାଇଖାନା pāikhānā
toilet in Sanskrit: भङ्ग bhaṅgá
toilet in Sinhala: වැසිකිළිය wæsikiḷiya, වැසිකිලිය wæsikiliya
toilet in Assamese: শৌচালয় xousaloy
toilet in Nepali: शौचालय śaucālaya
toilet in Pashto: بيت الخلا bayt olxalã, پاخانه pāxāná, تشناب tašnāb
toilet in Tagalog: palikuran, inidoro
toilet in Arabic: مِرْحَاض mirḥāḍ, حَمَّام ḥammām, تْوَالِيتّ twālitt, دَوْرَةُ المِيَاه dawratu l-miyāh
toilet in Malay: bilik air, tandas, toilet, mangkuk tandas
toilet in Indonesian: toilet, kamar kecil, WC, kloset
toilet in Persian: تَشْنَاب tašnāb, بَدْرَفْت badraft, تُوالِت tovâlet, دَسْتْشویی dastšuyi
toilet in Thai: ห้องน้ำ hɔ̂ng-náam, สุขา sù-kǎa, ส้วม sûuam, โถส้วม tǒo-sûuam
toilet in Vietnamese: vệ sinh, nhà vệ sinh, phòng vệ sinh, cầu tiêu
toilet in Myanmar: အိမ်သာ imsa, သန့်စင်ခန်း san.canghkan:

Examples of toilet in a sentence

He wet his thumb with saliva pressing on the tongue, ran it up and down faster over the letter 'I' of 'TOILET', the 'LADIES TOILET' was transformed into 'LADIES TO LET' in no time.2014, C.S. Walter, Abandoned Bridges, pp. 105 f.:
Come as you are, tarry not over your toilet.1913, Rabindranath Tagore, Come as you are..., Poetry Foundation, page 85:
Three women got down and standing on the curb they made unabashed toilets, smoothing skirts and stockings, brushing one another's back, opening parcels and donning various finery.1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 111:
Here, at night, a lonely but brilliantly neon-illuminated figure, I performed my toilet, watched incuriously by the Burmese seated at the tables of the tea-shops below.1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, Chapter 8:

All 40 example sentences with toilet

Synonyms of toilet

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of toilet

Forms of toilet

Noun
plural	toilets
alternative form	toilette
Verb
third-person singular present	toilets
present participle	toileting
past participle	toileted
past	toileted
present participle (rare)	toiletting
past participle (rare)	toiletted
past (rare)	toiletted

Plural of toilet: toilets

Origin of toilet

From Middle French toilette, diminutive of toile (“cloth”), from their use to protect clothing while shaving or arranging hair. From its use as a private room, toilet came to refer euphemistically to lavatories and then to its fixtures, beginning in the United States in the late 19th century.

Words formed from toilet

Phrases with toilet

62 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about toilet

What does toilet mean?: Toilet means a room, enclosed area or single-purpose building containing a fixture or fixtures used for urination and defecation; a bathroom or water closet.
What is toilet in Hindi?: Toilet in Hindi is शौचालय (śaucālay), टॉयलेट (ṭŏyleṭ), प्रसाधन (prasādhan). See Toilet meaning in Hindi.
How do you use toilet in a sentence?: He wet his thumb with saliva pressing on the tongue, ran it up and down faster over the letter 'I' of 'TOILET', the 'LADIES TOILET' was transformed into 'LADIES TO LET' in no time.
What part of speech is toilet?: Toilet can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce toilet?: Toilet is pronounced /ˈtɔɪ.lət/.
What is the plural of toilet?: The plural of toilet is toilets.

Words near toilet in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: toilet (page history and authors); भङ्ग (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); शौचालय (Nepali) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-toilet.ogg, en-uk-toilet.ogg.

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