Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tea towel

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.87 in modern English

Syllables
tea -tow-el
IPA
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A cloth, made from cotton or linen, for drying dishes and glassware.

British usage

Etymology

From tea + towel. Attested from the middle 19th century. Compare earlier tea-cloth from the late 18th century.

Usage

Inflected Forms

tea towels (plural) tea-towel (alternative) teatowel (alternative)

Synonyms

dishcloth dishtowel tea cloth dish towel

Questions

What does tea towel mean?
A cloth, made from cotton or linen, for drying dishes and glassware.
Where does tea towel come from?
From tea + towel. Attested from the middle 19th century. Compare earlier tea-cloth from the late 18th century.

How to pronounce tea towel

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “tea towel”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “tea towel”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “tea towel” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.