T-shirt Definition: Explanation, Synonyms, and Practice

Define “T-shirt” by taking a look at how native speakers use this word daily. Read, listen and repeat.

Learn more about the synonymous expressions that come with this word to make your vocabulary more advanced and interesting.

Related nouns: clothing shirt

Synonyms (contextual): tee

Common collocations: cotton T-shirt big T-shirt buy a T-shirt

You already know how to say “T-shirt,” so it is time to discover how to combine it with different parts of speech in English such as nouns, verbs and adjectives.

With adjectives: plain T-shirt striped T-shirt oversized T-shirt tight T-shirt

With verbs: wear a T-shirt put on a T-shirt compare T-shirts wash a T-shirt

With nouns (noun + noun): T-shirt design T-shirt size T-shirt collection T-shirt material

“T-shirt’s” meaning is quite straightforward, but still, there are plenty of phrases with this word that are interesting, can describe different things and explain certain emotions. You can see some of them below.

• Been there, done that, bought a T-shirt — this means you already did something before, you know it well, and you don’t want to do it again.

  She didn’t want to go on another blind date. She said she’d been there, done that, bought a T-shirt.

• A band T-shirt — it is a T-shirt with the name or picture of a music band on it. People wear it to show they like that band or artist.

  I bought a band T-shirt at the concert. I love Slipknot so much!

• A vintage T-shirt — an old-style T-shirt, usually from many years ago, or made to look old. People wear it because it looks special or classic.

  Anny likes vintage T-shirts because they look unique.

Let’s evaluate the level of your understanding of this word and its meaning with our intellectual game. Take your time, read each task carefully and check your result.

Learn how to spell “T-shirt” and pronounce it in French, Spanish and German in order to understand other language cultures.

Take some rest and look at these interesting details that are connected with this word, its history and some records.

• T-shirts started as underwear.

  T-shirts, which were first invented in the late 1800s, were used as a base clothing by people to be both comfortable and keep themselves clean. They were not made to be worn openly, but over time, after WW2, movies and artists turned them into a fashionable option for the outdoors.

• The biggest T-shirt ever made.

  The giant T-shirt that holds the record as the largest ever is 108.96 metres in length and 73.48 metres in width. Romania was the country where this T-shirt was made in 2023, and they used recycled materials for this purpose. Later on, it was cut into thousands of standard T-shirts to be given to children in need.

• Making a T-shirt requires a huge amount of water.

  Creating one cotton T-shirt requires approximately 2,700 liters of water. That is more water than a person would consume in more than two years. This indicates that even something ordinary can affect the environment.

Phrases with “T-shirt” are already a part of various quotations that you can hear sometimes. Go through some of them and see how this simple clothing item has become an integral part of people’s lives.