clothes

From Middle English clothes, cloþes, plural of cloth, cloþ (“cloth, garment”), from Old English clāþas (“clothes”), plural of clāþ (“cloth”), equivalent to cloth +‎ -es. Cognate with Scots clathes, claes (“clothes”), Danish klæder, Norwegian Bokmål klær, Norwegian Nynorsk klede, German Kleider.

• cloathes (obsolete)
• clotheses (nonstandard, childish)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kləʊ(ð)z/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /kloʊ(ð)z/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Homophones: cloze, close (when /ð/ is omitted)
• Rhymes: -əʊðz, -əʊz

clothes pl (plural only)

1. (plural only) Items of clothing; apparel.

   suit of clothes.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Even in an era when individuality in dress is a cult, his clothes were noticeable. He was wearing a hard hat of the low round kind favoured by hunting men, and with it a black duffle-coat lined with white.

2. (obsolete) plural of cloth.
3. The covering of a bed; bedclothes.
   • 1717, Matthew Prior, The Dove:

     She turned each way her frighted head, / Then sunk it deep beneath the clothes.

4. Laundry (hung on a clothesline).

• (apparel): See Thesaurus:clothing

• Sranan Tongo: krosi

• clothing
• gear
• habiliment
• threads

From clothe +‎ -s.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kləʊðz/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /kloʊðz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊðz

clothes

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of clothe

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “clothes”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “clothes”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• cholest., closeth

• clathes, cloþes

clothes

1. plural of cloth

• English: clothes
• Scots: clathes, claes, clais, claise