plural noun
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articles of dress
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( as modifier )
clothes brush
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short for bedclothes
Usage
Spelling tips for clothes The word clothes is hard to spell for two reasons. First, it sounds like the verb close, but it is spelled differently. Also, the word clothes is different from the plural of cloth (cloths), but the two are easily confused for one another. How to spell clothes: You aren't finished putting on clothes until you've tied Each Shoe (-es). Remembering that you need Each Shoe, or -es, at the end to finish getting dressed can help you spell clothes correctly.
Etymology
Origin of clothes
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English clāthas, plural of clāth cloth
Compare meaning
How does clothes compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Clothes rhymes with "nose," and your nose is one of the few body parts you don't often cover with clothes. Pants, shirts, and coats are types of clothes. Clothes comes from the word cloth — it's true: Most clothes are made of cloth, or fabric. Whether you wear suits, uniforms, or jeans, clothes cover the body, just as bed clothes is a term for the sheets and blankets that cover a bed. You can show your style with the clothes you wear, or you might just throw on whatever clothes are clean (or sort of clean) and available.
Vocabulary lists containing clothes
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Instead, just encourage all the rich people there to keep doing what they’re already doing — namely spending ridiculous amounts of money on ridiculous designer clothes.
From MarketWatch • May 6, 2026
There was more room for my backpack and other personal items than I expected but I struggled to change clothes in there.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026
"Leather clothing is not that common among North Korean residents. Luxury brands, leather jackets and fur coats are precious clothes that can't be worn by ordinary North Koreans."
From BBC • May 5, 2026
“He influences the clothes we wear, the way we cut our hair, the music we listen to and the dreams we dream.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 3, 2026
A birchwood fire was burning fiercely, and already his sodden clothes, hanging from tree roots jutting through the ceiling, were beginning to steam.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
