Word for hygeine room, and also the toilet bowl and water tank?

March 28, 2023 5:59 PM

1)"There is no toilet in this house"? But that could be misunderstood as there is the shower and the bathtub but toilet bowl and water tank combo is missing. 2)What are the words for the 2 things, (i.e the room, and the toilet water tank combo)?
posted by amfgf to Writing & Language (28 answers total)

Bathroom?
posted by sagc at 6:04 PM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: This differs between dialects of English. In the US, the bathroom is the room with a toilet in it. If there’s no bathing apparatus in there it can also be called a half bathroom or powder room. But if you’re in public looking for a place to pee, you ask for the bathroom. You’d also use the bathroom to take a shower or bath. Toilet means the …thing you sit on.

I believe it’s different in other countries though, with regard to room names.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:07 PM on March 28, 2023 [9 favorites]

Shower room?
posted by mochapickle at 6:08 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: It's just a WC? :) (I know that's Brit speak for a toilet room)
posted by kschang at 6:10 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: I don't know of any formal name for the plumbing fixture that isn't ambiguous with the room.

Even informally, "the loo", "the John", or "the crapper" can be used to refer to the room, or to the fixture itself.

There are a bunch of words with room or location markers in them ("washroom", "bathroom", "lavatory", "water closet") that tend to skew pretty clearly towards the space, not the fixture, but even those get used euphemisticly.

Bottom line is if I'm understanding what you're asking correctly, I think you're out of luck.
posted by aubilenon at 6:14 PM on March 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Can you narrow it down for us to whether there's a particular location or dialect you're asking about?

For whatever anecdata is worth, I would generally find "toilet" to fairly unambiguously mean the actual fixture. The room would typically be the bathroom or restroom but could be any of it a half dozen other terms, but quite rarely "the toilet."
posted by Stacey at 6:20 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In the US (west coast), a toilet/tank combo is a "toilet," and the room that contains the toilet/tank combo is the "bathroom." Sometimes the bathroom also contains a shower and/or tub, but a "bathroom" is understood to contain at least the toilet/tank combo AND a sink for handwashing.

We use the words "bathroom" and "restroom" interchangeably. So whatever I said about the meaning of "bathroom" also applies to "restroom."
posted by happy_cat at 6:23 PM on March 28, 2023 [5 favorites]

Best answer: My apartment is in a house built in 1912 with a separate room for the toilet. The room with bath and sink is the bathroom, the room with the toilet is the toilet room. But if I just said bathroom and nothing else, an ordinary person would assume there is a toilet in there. North America filter.
posted by lookoutbelow at 6:25 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In the U.S., a “full bathroom” or sometimes “full bath” has all the fixtures (toilet, bath, sink, and usually a tub which might be part of the shower). A ”half bath” is usually just a toilet and sink.

When I lived in Australia, I had one full bath (shower, sink, and toilet), one “bathroom” (shower, sink, and tub), and one water closet (just a toilet).
posted by chrisulonic at 6:27 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: In the US: most commonly "bathroom" for the room if it's in a house, even there's no bath in it, and "restroom" for the room if it's in a public place. The fixture is the "toilet."

In Canada: "washroom" for the room, also "toilet" for the fixture.
posted by tangerine at 6:27 PM on March 28, 2023 [5 favorites]

Best answer: The word I would use for the fixture to avoid being confused with the room is “commode,” but that’s probably a regionalism, and I’d only use commode to avoid that ambiguity. Otherwise I’d say “toilet.”
posted by adamrice at 7:06 PM on March 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Residential bathroom/restroom/washroom types found in the U.S. --
Half bath, powder room: toilet and sink.
Three-quarter bathroom, also restroom: toilet, sink and shower.
Full bathroom, also restroom: toilet, sink and tub. This may include a shower with the tub or as a separate area.
Guest bathroom: any of the above designated by the owner as available for their guests. Fancy little soaps, nicely folded hand towels, any hygiene supplies that might be needed in a pinch.
Master bathroom: bathroom as a part of the master bedroom suite. Usually accessible only through that bedroom.
Toilet facilities are sometimes installed near the garage, workshop, swimming pool/jacuzzi, etc.
posted by TrishaU at 7:15 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: In Canada, on builders blueprints, in commercial/ industrial buildings the room with the toilet (bowl+tank) and handwashing sink are labeled W.C.

There are mandates for how many are required for the max capacity of the building, and minimum dimensions, and minimum dimensions for the accessible WC(s).
posted by porpoise at 7:16 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: When I worked on designing high-end custom residences in Southern California, those places would typically have the toilet in a small little room by itself, accessed from the main "bathroom" that had sinks and a shower and/or bathtub, that we'd call the "water closet" or WC.

When I'm talking about the kind of place I'm able to live in, where the sink, toilet, and tub/shower fixtures are all in one room I call that a bathroom. Take away the tub/shower, and I'd call it a powder room.

If I'm in a public building where there's typically just sink(s) and toilet(s), that's a restroom. But I also might ask where the restroom is if I'm at a friend's house with the expectation that they'll direct me to a room with a toilet and sink in it.
posted by LionIndex at 7:32 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: In my grandmother's house (dating to early 1900s, US) there was a "washroom" and a "toilet". The washroom include the sink, vanity and tub. The toilet was used to refer to the room that included only the toilet, a wall mounted lamp and a holder for the toilet paper.

Like most Americans, I would use "bathroom" to refer to a room in a home that a toilet and sink but no bath (technically half bath if the distinction mattered).
posted by metahawk at 7:33 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: Southern US, probably archaic: the toilet/tank combo was the "commode" and the handwashing sink was "the lavatory." The euphemism for "toilet" as the room was "lavatory."
posted by Miko at 8:34 PM on March 28, 2023

Best answer: FWIW, I just checked the websites for Home Depot, Menard's, and Lowe's, and they all call the toilet the "toilet". :)

Here (US) you can use "toilet" for the room with the toilet, but it would be exceedingly strange for a room without a toilet.
posted by zompist at 8:46 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It's freaking annoying for foreign language learners - in Poland it's "Toaleta" for the room with a toilet in it if it doesn't also have a bath or shower, and I initially got taught the word as toilet in English classes as a kid, then UK and US people were either shocked (apparently it's more vulgar than restroom and some people don't use the word toilet in public?) or plain confused. You lot have a bad habit of nicking words and changing their meaning.

Sensibly, the actual fixture is called a sedes in Polish, from Latin for a seat or throne.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 10:38 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In the UK a room with a toilet and perhaps a sink in is also a toilet. A bathroom may or may not have a toilet. A room including a bath is not itself a toilet in my book, whether or not it has a toilet in, it's a bathroom; but in your usage we would probably disambiguate by saying 'there is no toilet room, but the bathroom has a toilet' or 'the bathroom has no toilet'. When we direct people to the toilet we point them to the room containing the toilet, whatever that room is called.

On plans, but not when speaking, a toilet-only room is a WC. Loo is a fairly common (and polite) synonym for both the room and the object, lavvie more regional, bog more informally (where one might go for a slash and/or dump), and lavatory very rarely used nowadays (but all still potentially meaning both room and object).

The (porcelain) throne, in the throne room, is unambiguously the article and the room it occupies. Clearly you should stick with these.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:00 AM on March 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Here's another take on UK terminology. I'm English, middle-class and middle-aged, all of which affect the words I use.

The item itself is a toilet or a loo. I'm too polite/middle-class/female for "bog", and I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the word "lavatory" in a domestic context in real life, as it's a very formal word. You see it more in writing.

A small downstairs room with just a toilet and a sink in it is a cloakroom, or a downstairs cloakroom. A small upstairs room with just a toilet and (optionally) sink in it is a toilet or loo, or an upstairs toilet or loo. If you're looking at an estate agent listing, either of these might be described as a WC, but it's not a term people use in conversation.

A room with a bath or shower in it, and (optionally) a toilet and / or sink, is a bathroom. (A room with a shower in it, and (optionally) a toilet and/or sink, but no bath, could also be a shower room, but "bathroom" is fine.)

It is very unusual for a house to have no washing or lavatory facilities at all. If I needed to present this information to someone, I would make it very clear what I meant by indicating how the person living or staying there is expected to deal with the situation. "There is no indoor bathroom in this house. There is a working toilet in an outhouse, and there is hot water to the kitchen sink" or whatever.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:26 AM on March 29, 2023

Best answer: UK-based. I might use 'toilet fixture' or 'cistern and bowl' to refer un-ambiguously to the thing itself. But I wouldn't use those terms when asking to use it - then it would be 'loo'.
posted by atlantica at 3:47 AM on March 29, 2023

Best answer: In the UK, this is a fairly common set up in a certain type of house. The pair of rooms are usually described together as "bathroom with separate toilet" or sometimes "bathroom with separate WC".
posted by plonkee at 5:34 AM on March 29, 2023

Best answer: In Australia it is quite common for there to be a small room with just a toilet in it. This room is also referred to as "the toilet" although many people will call it the loo as well, or sometimes the dunny. The bathroom is a room that has a sink and bath/shower/both. Some houses do have shower/bath, sink and toilet all in the same room, like an American bathroom. It's not unusual but it's also not as dominant as it is in the US. Also multi-storey homes are less common here, though that is changing especially in outer suburbs, where there is more room for people to have McMansions. This means you're unlikely to have the powder room/bathroom type distinction that you might in your average multi-storey US home.

Of the six places I've lived here, five had a separate toilet (room). The house which had a toilet (object) in the bathroom also had a separate toilet, which was handy if confusing, since the separate toilet was next to the bathroom with the toilet in it. Most people's houses I've been in have separate toilets and one friend actually lived in a place with an outdoor dunny still, though I guess this was over 10 years ago, so it's probably been renovated now.
posted by Athanassiel at 5:37 AM on March 29, 2023

Best answer: OK, so the problem is that there's a house without a toilet, and it's not clear whether it only lacks a toilet fixture or if it also lacks a bath, shower, and/or bathroom sink?

I actually have a cabin that has a shower and bathroom sink but no toilet fixture. The way I convey this to new visitors is to say that it has a washroom with a shower but there's no flush toilet. (It has an outhouse instead). Once they arrive, the word "toilet" does not come up again--I show them the washroom and the outhouse and then they know where to go when they need either one.
posted by lampoil at 1:32 PM on March 29, 2023

Best answer: I grew up saying bathroom for any room with a toilet, whether it had a bath/shower in it or not. Half-bath is a term I knew for a home bathroom with only a toilet and sink. But I would still just refer to it as a bathroom, unless in a discussion about real estate.

I always refer to public facilities as bathrooms, but here in the Chicago area people seem to ask for the restroom a lot more, or the washroom. Nobody ever looks at me funny if I ask where the bathroom is, though.

As an amusing aside, "going to the bathroom" can refer to the act of taking oneself to the room with the toilet, but sometimes people use it as a polite euphemism for the act of elimination itself. For example "the dog went to the bathroom on the living room carpet."
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:26 PM on March 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: So... there are some places where a toilet doesn't contain a washstand for hand washing?!
posted by porpoise at 6:11 PM on March 29, 2023

Best answer: I'm in Australia and when you see this arrangement in a real estate listing it's called 'bathroom with separate toilet' or very very occasionally in Victorian houses, "bathroom with outdoor toilet". Sometimes there's a sink for handwashing, sometimes not and you have to find the room with the shower/bath and sink.

The separate toilet is marketed as an advantage because someone can still use the loo while another person is, say, having a bath. Also the perception that flushing the toilet spreads germs so you want your washing area to be separate/uncontaminated.

If you were at someone's house and needed to wash your hands, you'd probably say bathroom and make it clear you wanted to wash up, not use the toilet e.g. 'Where's your bathroom I just want to wash my hands?"

If you needed to use the toilet specifically, you'd ask for the loo or the toilet, but might also say bathroom e.g. "Where's your bathroom? I need to use the loo/toilet." Your host might then say something like "The toilet's at the end of the corridor and the sink is in the bathroom next to it." I guess another variant could be "The dunny's outside, sink is at the backdoor" or "We've got an outhouse, go down the path. Sink is at the backdoor."

The outdoor situation is really really rare now, I can only think of one place in the last decade I've encountered it and they also had an primary indoor bathroom with toilet.
posted by t0astie at 6:39 PM on March 29, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you to all.

I try to give most of the answers best answers. I skipped one or 2 answers, by accident, in one or 2 of my questions, but I have went back to do the correction.
posted by amfgf at 1:50 PM on March 31, 2023