underwear

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ -wear. Compare Dutch ondergoed, German Unterwäsche, Swedish underkläder.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʌndəwɛə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʌndɚˌwɛɹ/, /ˈʌndɚwɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

underwear (usually uncountable, plural underwears)

1. Clothes worn next to the skin, underneath outer clothing.
   • 1998, Banjo-Kazooie, Rareware:

     Don't scratch and bite, my little bear, you'll soon need bigger underwear.

   • 2016 June 30, Stefan Hertmans, War and Turpentine‎^[1], Random House, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 202:

     As a couple of soldiers sing a dirty song, he loses sight of the edge of the stage and falls off in the middle of his dance like a seasoned slapstick artist, his white legs in the air and his filthy underwear visible to all.

2. (colloquial) Underpants (boxers, briefs, panties, etc) and often bras.
   • 2006, Toni L. Meilleur, Tournament of Fire:

     “A thong,” she answered him breathlessly. Now completely turned on by the fact that his man was sniffing her underwear and grinning like a tiger that took down its prey. That is if tigers could smile and still look sexy.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• shreddies
• underclothes
• undergarment
• undies
• See also Thesaurus:underwear

Coordinate terms

• outerwear
• underdress (noun)

Derived terms

• long underwear
• magic underwear
• pair of underwear
• sew buttons on your underwear
• thermal underwear

 

Translations

clothes worn next to the skin

• Afrikaans: onderklere
• Albanian: ndërresa (sq)
• Arabic: مَلَابِس دَاخِلِيَّة m pl (malābis dāḵiliyya), لِبَاس دَاخِلِيّ m (libās dāḵiliyy)

  Egyptian Arabic: لباس m (lebās)

• Armenian: ներքնազգեստ (hy) (nerkʻnazgest)
• Azerbaijani: paltar (az), alt paltarı
• Belarusian: ні́жняя бялі́зна f (nížnjaja bjalízna), бялі́зна f (bjalízna)
• Bulgarian: бельо́ (bg) n (beljó)
• Burmese: အတွင်းခံ (my) (a.twang:hkam)
• Catalan: roba interior f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 內衣 / 内衣 (noi⁶ ji¹), 底衫 (dai² saam¹), 底衫褲 / 底衫裤 (dai² saam¹ fu³), 內衣褲 / 内衣裤 (noi⁶ ji¹ fu³)

  Hokkien: 內衫 / 内衫 (zh-min-nan) (lāi-saⁿ), 內套 / 内套 (zh-min-nan) (lāi-thò), 內衣 / 内衣 (lāi-i), 下底衫 (ē-té-saⁿ, ē-tóe-saⁿ), 內底衫 / 内底衫 (lāi-té-saⁿ, lāi-tóe-saⁿ), 內衫褲 / 内衫裤 (lāi-saⁿ-khò͘)

  Mandarin: 內衣 / 内衣 (zh) (nèiyī), 襯衣 / 衬衣 (zh) (chènyī), 內衣褲 / 内衣裤 (zh) (nèiyīkù)

• Crimean Tatar: ştan
• Czech: spodní prádlo n
• Danish: undertøj (da) n
• Dutch: ondergoed (nl) n
• Esperanto: subvesto, kalsono
• Estonian: ihupesu
• Faroese: undirklæði n pl
• Finnish: alusvaatteet (fi) pl
• French: sous-vêtement (fr) m
• Georgian: საცვალი (ka) (sacvali), ტრუსიკი (ṭrusiḳi), პერანგის ამხანაგი (ṗerangis amxanagi)
• German: Unterwäsche (de) f
• Greek: εσώρουχο (el) n (esóroucho)

  Ancient: διάζωμα n (diázōma), ζῶμα n (zôma), περίζωμα n (perízōma)

• Hebrew: תַּחְתּוֹנִים (he) m pl (takhtonim)
• Hungarian: alsónemű (hu), fehérnemű (hu)
• Icelandic: nærföt n pl
• Irish: fo-éadaí m pl
• Italian: biancheria intima f, intimo (it) m, (colluquial) mutande (it) f pl
• Japanese: 下着 (ja) (したぎ, shitagi), 肌着 (ja) (hadagi)
• Kazakh: ішкиім (ışkiım), дамбал (dambal)
• Khmer: ខោអាវទ្រនាប់ (khao ʼaaw trɔnŏəp),​ សម្លៀកបំពាក់ក្នុង (sɑmliək bɑmpĕək knong)
• Korean: 속옷 (ko) (sogot)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دھرپێ (dhirpê)

  Northern Kurdish: bincil (ku) m, binkiras (ku) m, etek (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: ич кийим (ic kiyim)
• Lao: ເສື້ອຊ້ອນໃນ (sư̄a sǭn nai)
• Latvian: apakšveļa f
• Lithuanian: apatiniai m pl
• Luxembourgish: Ënnerwäsch (lb) f
• Macedonian: долна облека f (dolna obleka)
• Maltese: ħwejjeġ ta’ taħt pl
• Maori: toroihi
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: дотуур хувцас (mn) (dotuur xuvcas)

• Norman: habits dé d'ssous m pl (Jersey), lînge dé corps m (Jersey), lînge dé d'ssous m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: undertøy (no) n, (for women) dameundertøy n

  Nynorsk: undertøy n, underty n, (for women) dameundertøy n

• Okinawan: 下着 (しちゃぢ, shichaji)
• Pannonian Rusyn: споднї шмати f pl (spodnji šmati)
• Persian: لباس زیر (fa) (lebâs-e zir)
• Polish: bielizna (pl) f
• Portuguese: roupa de baixo (pt) f, roupa íntima (pt) f, roupa interior (pt) f
• Quechua: juch'uy p'acha
• Romanian: chiloți (ro) m pl, lenjerie de corp, izmene, indispensabili (ro)
• Russian: ни́жнее бельё n (nížneje belʹjó), испо́днее (ru) n (ispódneje), бельё (ru) n (belʹjó)
• Scottish Gaelic: fo-aodach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: доње рубље n

  Roman: donje rublje n

• Slovak: spodná bielizeň f
• Slovene: spodnje perilo n
• Spanish: ropa interior f, calzones (es) m pl (Guatemala, Mexico), chones (es) m pl (Mexico, colloquial)
• Swahili: chupi (sw)
• Swedish: underplagg n, underkläder (sv) pl
• Tagalog: damit panloob
• Tajik: либоси таг (libos-i tag)
• Taos: pànąthóna
• Tatar: эчке кием (eçke kiyem)
• Telugu: లోబట్ట (lōbaṭṭa)
• Thai: ชุดชั้นใน (chút-chán-nai), ชั้นใน (chán-nai)
• Turkish: iç çamaşırı (tr)
• Turkmen: içki geýim
• Ukrainian: ни́жня біли́зна f (nýžnja bilýzna), біли́зна (uk) f (bilýzna)
• Uyghur: ئىچ كىيىم (ich kiyim)
• Uzbek: ich kiyim, ichki kiyim
• Vietnamese: quần áo lót, đồ lót
• Volapük: sleafablit, niblit (vo)
• Welsh: dilledyn isaf m, dillad isaf m pl
• Yiddish: אונטערוועש (untervesh), וועש n (vesh)

underpants and bras

• Armenian: ներքնազգեստ (hy) (nerkʻnazgest)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 內衣褲 / 内衣裤 (zh) (nèiyīkù)

• Estonian: aluspesu
• Finnish: alusvaatteet (fi) pl
• Greek: εσώρουχο (el) n (esóroucho)
• Gujarati: ચડ્ડી (gu) f (caḍḍī)
• Hindi: चड्डी (hi) f (caḍḍī), कच्छा (hi) m (kacchā), कच्छ (hi) m (kacch), जाँघिया (hi) m (jāṅghiyā), जांघिया (jāṅghiyā)
• Icelandic: nærföt
• Punjabi: ਕੱਛਾ m (kacchā)
• Quechua: juch'uy p'acha
• Spanish: maxtate m (Guatemala)
• Swedish: underkläder (sv) pl
• Tagalog: damit panloob
• Vietnamese: quần lót (vi)