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This is similar to this question, but not quite the same. There are quite a few words which have totally different meanings in American and British English and which are likely to cause confusion when heard by non-local speakers. What are they?

We are looking for the same word with different meanings (for example jumper), and not words which are different between the two dialects (for example truck and lorry).

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  • converted to CW as requested. I'm still not quite sure what the difference to that other question is... I mean, fanny and pants got mentioned in it, too. (Though the latter subsequently got deleted.)
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 16:16
  • A "different meaning" is less critical than an "opposite meaning", which can be much more hazardous to the user. Consequential, there are more words with "different meanings" than with "opposite meanings".
    – Danny
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 18:40

12 Answers 12

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Fanny: buttocks (AE); vagina (BE)

Not an insignificant distinction. Bless the soul who confuses the two in practice.

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vest

British: undershirt

American: waistcoat -- a sleeveless article of clothing for the upper body

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Pants

British: underwear

American: slacks, trousers, or jeans

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pissed - drunk (British), pissed - angry (American); overheard a conversation where this made all the difference :)

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  • AmE pants = BrE trousers; BrE pants = AmE underpants
  • BrE football ≠ AmE football
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Not sure if this is current, but "fag" used to mean cigarette or homosexual depending on which side of the Atlantic one uttered it.

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Also watch out for thong. In US English, this is a piece of intimate underwear, usually for females. In Australian English, it is a piece of footwear.

(Aussies are usually aware of the difference but Americans often do not.)

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    Americans should be aware of it since the 'footwear' meaning is used in AmE as well--though it's much less common than the 'underwear' meaning.
    – Charles
    Commented May 9, 2011 at 20:14
  • You'd think so, but it was a popular game in comedy circles a few years ago for Aussie comedians to bait unaware Americans.
    – staticsan
    Commented May 10, 2011 at 0:21
  • Sure, there are plenty of ways to bait people by judicious choice of wording. But when used normally it doesn't cause confusion.
    – Charles
    Commented May 10, 2011 at 12:46
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Rubbers

British - Rubber boots (or pencil eraser)

American - Male birth control device

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  • Rubber in BrE would normally mean a pencil eraser (usually a separate one, rather than the one on the top of the pencil). Rubber overshoes are "galoshes", rubber boots are "wellington boots" or "wellies".
    – Richard Gadsden
    Commented Sep 1, 2011 at 12:55
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This one could go on forever, especially when we start including slang meanings which may be more prevalent one side of the pond than the other. So I'm afraid I think the question is pants.

Which by the way are nether region undergarments (usually for males) in UK, but trousers in US.

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  • Unless you're from certain parts of the north of england (esp. Manchester and Lancashire) where pants is used to mean trousers, too.
    – Matt
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 10:07
  • @Matt: I don't get that far north very often (up in the badlands, as they say). I always thought they had to make do with just pants because northerners are too poor to afford trousers - like Scots are too poor to afford pants under their kilts (or is that because they're too tight? :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 16:54
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bugger

British:someone who sodomizes
American:someone who bugs

bender

British:homosexual
American:someone who bends, a lovable robot perhaps.

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    Bender in American English refers to a drinking binge. Nobody says bugger at all.
    – Kevin
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 18:30
  • Bugger is used in (British) English. Another meaning for bugger, is someone who writes bugs (which later on are found and corrected using a debugger, although, the correction of those bugs may cause other bugs, so essentially, all programmers are buggers).
    – Danny
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 18:37
  • @Kevin: Bender has that meaning in the UK too :)
    – psmears
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 22:12
  • @Danny, I wasn't clear but I meant nobody in America.
    – Kevin
    Commented Apr 13, 2011 at 1:43
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Cookie

British English: A specific crumbly biscuit, e.g. this is a cookie http://tanyaross.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/chocolate-chip-cookies.jpg but this is not http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudricky/2582442470/

American Engish (I think): any form of biscuit.

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    Apparently "biscuit" has different meanings as well. In the US, biscuits are soft and flaky bread products that are especially tasty smothered with sausage gravy.
    – oosterwal
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 0:42

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