Meaning
In Australian English, togs can mean a swimming costume or swimwear, with especially strong regional use in Queensland and parts of northern Australia; the same swimwear sense is also documented in New Zealand and Ireland.
How it is used
Cambridge records togs as Australian English informal for a swimming costume or swimming trunks. Collins independently records the swimming-costume sense in Australian, New Zealand and Irish English. Macquarie Dictionary's Australian Word Map documents especially strong Queensland and Top End associations while showing that usage extends beyond one state.
Examples
- “Grab your togs and towel before we go.”
- “The kids changed into their togs at the pool.”
- “I forgot my togs at home.”
Pronunciation
/tɒɡz/ · TOGZ
Tone and register
Casual and ordinary where used. The term should not be presented as the universal Australian word for swimwear because bathers, swimmers, cossie and other labels compete strongly by region and speaker.
Visitor guidance
Visitors can understand Australian togs as swimwear when beach, pool, packing or changing-room context makes the meaning clear. Outside those settings, togs can also mean clothes more generally in other English varieties, so context matters.
Cultural context
Togs is useful precisely because Australian swimwear vocabulary maps regional variation unusually well. Recognizing the word helps comprehension, but using one person's preference for togs, bathers or swimmers as proof of where they come from would overstate a variable linguistic pattern.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.