page_title: Public toilet
section_title: Alternative names
hierarchical_section_title: Public toilet / Alternative names
caption_attribution_description: Hidden Toilets
context_page_description: A public toilet is a room or small building with toilets and sinks that does not belong to a particular household. Rather, the toilet is available for use by the general public, customers, travellers, employees of a business, school pupils, prisoners etc. Public toilets are commonly separated into male and female facilities, although some are unisex, especially for small or single-occupancy public toilets. Increasingly, public toilets are accessible to people with disabilities. Public toilets are known by many other names depending on the country. Examples are: restroom, bathroom, men's room, women's room in the US, washroom in Canada, and toilets, lavatories, water closet, ladies and gents in Europe. In some parts of the world, they are referred to as the loo.
  Some public toilets are free of charge while others charge a fee. In the latter case they are also called pay toilets and sometimes have a charging turnstile.
  Local authorities or commercial businesses may provide public toilet facilities. Some are unattended while others are staffed by an attendant.
context_section_description: Public toilets are known by many names in different varieties of English.
  In American English, "restroom" commonly denotes a facility featuring toilets and sinks designed for use by the public, but "restroom" and "bathroom" are often used interchangeably for any room with a toilet (both in public and in private homes). "Restroom" is considered by some to be slightly more formal or polite. "Bathroom" is quite common in schools. "Comfort station" sometimes refers to a visitor welcome center such as those in national parks. The term restroom derived from the fact that in the early 1900s through to the middle of the century up-scale restaurants, theatres and performing facilities would often have comfortable chairs or sofas located within or in a room directly adjacent to the actual toilet and sink facilities, something which can be seen in some movies of the time period.  An example of this is the description of a "movie palace" which was opening in 1921 which was described as including " ... a rest-room for the fair sex and a lounging room for the sterner sex ... off these rooms are the toilets."
  In Canadian English, public facilities are frequently called and signed as "washrooms", although usage varies regionally. The word "toilet" generally denotes the fixture itself rather than the room. The word "washroom" is rarely used to mean "utility room" or "mud room" as it is in some parts of the United States. "Bathroom" is generally used to refer to the room in a person's home that includes a bathtub or shower while a room with only a toilet and sink in a person's residence is typically called a "washroom" because you would wash your hands in it upon returning home or before a meal or a "powder room" because women would fix their make-up on their faces in that room. These terms are the terms typically used on floor plans for residences or other buildings.  Real estate advertisements for residences often refer to "three-piece washrooms" (include a bathtub or shower) and "two-piece washrooms" (only toilet and sink). In public athletic or aquatic facilities, showers are available in locker rooms.
  In Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand, the terms in use are "public toilet", "public lavatory" (abbreviated "lav"), "public convenience", and more informally, "public loo". As public toilets were traditionally signed as "gentlemen" or "ladies", the colloquial terms "the gents' room" and "the ladies' room", or simply "the gents" and "the ladies" are used to indicate the facilities themselves. The British Toilet Association, sponsor of the Loo of the Year Awards, refers to public toilets collectively as "away-from-home" toilets.
  In Philippine English, "comfort room", or "C.R.", is the most common term in use.
  Some European languages used words cognate with "toilet" (e.g. les toilettes in French), or the initialism "W.C.", an abbreviation for "water closet", an older term for the flush toilet.  Public urinals (pissoir) are known in several Romance languages by the name of a Roman Emperor: vespasienne in French, vespasiani in Italian, and vespasiene in Romanian.
  Mosques, madrassas (schools), and other places Muslims gather, have public sex-separated "ablution rooms" since Islam requires specific procedures for cleansing parts of the body before prayer. These rooms normally adjoin the toilets, which are also subject to Muslim hygienical jurisprudence and Islamic toilet etiquette.
caption: Entrance to an underground public toilet in Japan
exif: {}