What is the difference between trousers and dress pants

So this linguistic blend can result in awkward and embarrassing situations if you are talking with a British or American. Nevertheless, in some countries like Australia, pants and trousers are used synonymously.

Trousers is an outer garment covering the body from the waist to the ankles, with a separate part for each leg. Trouser is a tailored garment with a waistband, buttoned loopholes and a fly front. Pants is an outer garment covering the body from the waist to the ankles, with a separate part for each leg.

Trousers remained the standard lower-body clothing dress for males for the centuries; however, after the 20 th century, trousers gain popularity among females and become a popular piece of clothing for females as well. In British English, the trouser term is more importantly used; while in American English, the trousers are referred by pants.

According to the American, the trouser is considered as a tailored garment having a buttoned loophole, waistband, and a fly front.

Pants in North America is a general word which is most commonly used to mention to trousers as trousers referred to as the formal wearing, tailored pants according to American English.

Though in British English, the word pant is never used to mention trousers. Typically pants are known as underwear or undergarments in England or most of the British English language countries. In the United Kingdom, pants are usually wearing under trousers and trousers are used to cover pants in public or gathering. So this philological intermingling can result in an embarrassing or awkward moment when someone is talking to the British or an American.

That's a real job, and it's a real hassle for most shoppers, especially online where everything is guided by search engines. It takes specific terms to limit the results to the items you're actually looking for, and most men don't know those terms by heart. We thought we'd help.

This is the first of a couple Real Men Real Style posts that break down broad categories into the specific terms as they're being used today. This is inaccurate usage, and may be a sign that the manufacturer is not particularly skilled.

Show 3 more comments. FumbleFingers FumbleFingers k 45 45 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Google does something curious if you search for "men's slacks". Check it out. In the UK, pants just means what Americans call underpants. I'm surprised by your mention of "slacks".

I haven't heard that word used in the UK, at all. It seems to be an American English word. I saw two peaks in AmE and no hits at all in BrE.

Mitch It counts pants as hits for slacks. I found that curious. FumbleFingers: I didn't intend to give the impression that "slacks" is "US-only" terminology. I meant that it seems to be an American English word, at least in origin and most of its use. That's because, in all my decades, I can't think of even one example of hearing "slacks" used in the UK. An AE perspective: pants - The broadest term used for any full length two legged covering, male or female; covers both hard work clothes jeans , casual chinos, ducks, khakis, etc.

See ngram below which is probably book references only slacks - The next fairly broad term, covering all but work clothes or jeans. Community Bot 1. Men's slacks are where you find men's dress pants in a department store. Men's Furnishings is where you find "pants" in Nordstrom, a popular American department store. In Men's Clothing, one finds "dress trousers".

So not all stores are the same. In Macy's, one of the largest department stores in the US, one subcategory in Men's is pants. There is also a Suit Separates subcategory where, a quick review, finds the bottoms referred to as pants across several brands. Brooks Brothers, a more classic men's store, lists casual pants and dress trousers as categories.

Add a comment. MetaEd MetaEd That AE definition for slacks is outrageous. Do a google image search for slacks. Do those look informal? DanielCook: Formality is relative.

You might wear jeans to work, in which case those images would look formal. But in a suit-and-tie office, slacks would be decidedly informal. I think even the idea that a suit is formal is a recent notion. AFAIK "formal wear" once meant a tuxedo. If you look at depression-era pictures you can often find impoverished men in a three-piece suit, dingy and worn out though it may be.

DanielCook Wear what you like. Technically you are not wearing a suit when you do that, though, as a suit is a jacket and trousers cut from the same cloth. When your jacket and slacks don't match, they may be stylish, but you're not wearing a suit. If ladies were present, only a full dress suit "white tie" would be formal enough.

Nowadays white tie is a rarity even among the ruling classes, and black tie a tuxedo is as formal as you're likely to see. Show 10 more comments. I have never heard of slacks, but guessing they would be loose clothing.