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Is this toilet:

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Or maybe this (room):

enter image description here

Or should I just use "a toilet" and "the toilet".

I found similar question but it doesn't answer my question.

Community
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Peter
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  • 'toilet' almost always refers to the first object, the one you sit on. Your second person would almost never be referred to as 'toilet' except very tenuously by metonymy. The second picture is called a 'bathroom'. A room may be called a 'toilet' in BrE if it includes only a toilet (the appliance) and maybe a sink. – Mitch Dec 19 '15 at 17:47
  • @Mitch I mentioned about it in my question, it's not duplicate. – Peter Dec 19 '15 at 17:48
  • I understand, but here at ELU it would be considered a duplicate. Even if there is no answer directly for you question, the question itself there should cover your situation. – Mitch Dec 19 '15 at 17:51
  • @Mitch not really. thanks to answers here I know "toilet" has multiple meanings and I can say "toilet bowl" if I want to be specific – Peter Dec 19 '15 at 18:53
  • @pipe what a suitable nickname in our context... Yes indeed paradise bathroom. – Shimmy Weitzhandler Dec 19 '15 at 19:33
  • @Peter One of the answers on the other question does say In my house the bath is in the same room as the toilet, which, when combined with the other answers, does answer your question. As you have linked the question yourself, both now appear in each other's sidebar. But the community may decide that a formal link as duplicate is warranted. – Andrew Leach Dec 19 '15 at 19:35
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    If someone says "I need to pee" then you can say "Go use the bathoom OR toilet." If someone says "I need to shower" then you would not say "Go use the toilet" – MonkeyZeus Dec 19 '15 at 20:31
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    Just to confuse things, a seldom used meaning of "toilet" is the process of getting clean and/or "presentable." – WGroleau Dec 20 '15 at 01:18
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    @Mitch In my house, there's no toilet in the bathroom; it's in a separate room. It would be ridiculous to refer to the room with a toilet in it a "bathroom". The room with the bath in it is called that already. – Glen_b Dec 20 '15 at 09:59
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    "I found similar question but it doesn't answer my question." What *is* your question? – T.J. Crowder Dec 20 '15 at 10:58
  • So ... the upscale department store sells these expensive little bottles of "toilet water"... – GEdgar Dec 20 '15 at 14:16

4 Answers4

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"Toilet" originally referred to a piece of cloth upon which one laid out clothes while dressing, then the table used for this purpose. Over time it came to mean a dressing room in which was likely a wash basin for bathing before dressing.

It would have been natural to stash the "chamber pot" in this room, and hence the word acquired the meaning of being a place where one would urinate and defecate. From there the word was transferred to the mechanical appliance used to facilitate these actions.

(It should be noted that there is not really a word to identify the porcelain appliance or the room containing it that is not a euphemism of some sort. Perhaps "water closet" comes closest to being a "true" term, but it still is tip-toeing around the issue.)

With regard to using the term, "toilet" (in the US), absent any context, would generally be taken to mean the porcelain appliance, with the room containing it being "the bathroom" (when in a home) or "the restroom" (when in a public building). However, if you were to ask someone "Where's the toilet?" you would (unless you asked a joker) be directed to the nearest bathroom/restroom, even if there were, eg, a porcelain appliance on display in a store ten feet away.

As to "a" vs "the", either may be appropriate, depending on context. As I said, it's normal to ask "Where's the toilet?", even in a large building where there are likely several restrooms, but asking "Where's a toilet?" would not be regarded as particularly "odd".

Hot Licks
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  • I can think of a term to identify the appliance that is not euphemistic: the shitter. But this really only underscores your point. – zwol Dec 20 '15 at 02:58
  • "Where's the toilet?" implies that the questioner is looking for the nearest functioning toilet, presumably the only such toilet in the area or building. In the US, "Where's a toilet?" sort of implies that the questioner doesn't care whose toilet they're about to violate, and that any old toilet will do. This may come across as rude or crass, not to mention odd. People almost always ask for directions to "the toilet", "the restroom", or "the bathroom". – Dr. Funk Jan 13 '16 at 22:42
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They are both "a toilet" (though I believe that to Americans the latter is "a bathroom", and would be even if it didn't have a bath in it) . The use of the article is not relevant: like most common words in English (and probably in other languages) the word "toilet" has multiple meanings.

Colin Fine
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    People refer to bathrooms as toilets? I've heard "Going to to toilet", but that's referring to the toilet inside of the bathroom. The fact that you need to go into the bathroom to use it is implicit. – Carcigenicate Dec 19 '15 at 20:05
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    Disagree. If the room has a bath or shower in it, the room itself is never called a "toilet" in either US or UK usage. Obviously you'd still direct someone to that room if they asked "Where's the toilet?" – Roddy Dec 19 '15 at 22:40
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    No, I don't think anybody refers to bathrooms as toilets. But Americans (and, now, some Brits) refer to toilets (rooms with apparatus but no bath) as bathrooms. – Colin Fine Dec 21 '15 at 18:21
  • If there is no shower or bathtub, Americans would call is - a half-bathroom. – Beqa Aug 26 '22 at 16:59
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"A toilet" and "the toilet" are correct.

The second picture is a bathroom, which contains a toilet (or, the toilet).

You could also use the word "bowl" after "toilet" – a toilet bowl, the toilet bowl.

londonderry
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  • for "toilet bowl". I was wondering how can I say for example "toilet bowl is dirty" not "toilet (room) is dirty)"
    • – Peter Dec 19 '15 at 18:48
  • Use the definite article "the". The toilet bowl in the bathroom is dirty. Hope this helps. – londonderry Dec 19 '15 at 19:14
  • @Peter- please don’t refer to the room as the toilet except for when you say, “I need to go to the toilet”, otherwise refer to it as “the bathroom’ (at least in AmE) This eliminates the need to disamibiguate the room from the fixture. – Jim Dec 19 '15 at 19:18
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    The bowl is only part of the toilet, which also features tank, pedestal, flush mechanism, and hinged seat with lid (though if you purchase "a toilet" be prepared to purchase the seat and cover assembly separately, plus possibly an installation kit with a flexible hose connector for water inflow, and a wax ring for sealing the outflow). Products sold as bowl cleaners are primarily meant for application to the inside of the bowl only. – Brian Donovan Dec 19 '15 at 19:28
  • The term "stool" is sometimes used to refer to the porcelain appliance, or at least the bottom half of it. This is particularly true in the building trades, since "toilet" is too ambiguous. However, "stool" is also sometimes used to refer to the solid matter that may be deposited in said appliance, so there is still ambiguity. – Hot Licks Dec 19 '15 at 22:21