What's in a Bathroom? The English Words for Everyday Objects

Like our guide to the everyday words in a kitchen, the bathroom is full of objects you use every single day but were probably never taught to name in English. Here is a quick tour in everyday American English, with the British words you will also hear.

The sink

The place where you wash your hands and face is the sink (UK: basin). Above it sits the faucet for water (UK: tap). The small hole at the bottom, where the water runs away, is the drain (UK: plughole). On the wall above hangs a mirror, often fixed to the front of a small cabinet where toothpaste and medicine are kept.

Photo: Ralf Roletschek / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The shower and the tub

You wash standing up in the shower, where the water sprays from the showerhead above you. For a longer soak, you fill the bathtub (UK: simply "the bath"). The used water escapes through a drain in the floor of the shower or the bottom of the tub.

Photo: AleWi / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The toilet

The toilet is the seat you sit on. Behind or above it is the tank (UK: cistern), which stores the water and quietly refills itself after every flush.

Photo: Tiia Monto / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Towels and the rest

When you have finished, you dry yourself with a towel, which hangs on a towel bar on the wall (UK: towel rail). The small square cloth you use to wash your face is a washcloth (UK: flannel).

Photo: Vearthy (talk) / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Put the words into play

These are humble words, but they are the ones that leave you pointing and miming in a hardware store or a hotel. Open The Bathroom collection above, practice each one in a simple sentence ("The drain is clogged", "Pass me a towel"), and they will be there when you reach for them.