Dictionary

commode en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kəˈməʊd/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from French commode (literally “convenient”). Doublet of comodo.

Meanings

1. A low chest of drawers on short legs.
2. A stand for a washbowl and jug.
3. A chair containing a chamber pot.
   • Changing bandages and emptying the commode doesn’t exactly create a sexy environment, but we never talk about doctors’ appointments or heart problems when we’re in our room – we preserve that little bit of space for ourselves. 2025 October 26, Olivia Ladanyi, quoting Zach, “This is how we do it: ‘When his grandma heard us having sex, she asked if we’d been “having a fun dance” upstairs’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
4. (South-Asia, US, euphemistic) A toilet.
5. (historical) A kind of woman's headdress, raising the hair and fore part of the cap to a great height.
   • Now under high Commodes with Looks Erect, Bare-fac’d devours in gawdy Colours deck. 1696, George Granville, The She-Gallants:
   • Then at the Play-Houſe ye ogle the Boxes, and dop and bovv to thoſe you do not knovv, as vvell as thoſe you do. […] You nuzzle your Noſes into their Hoods and Commodes, […] 1693, [Thomas] d’Urfey, The Richmond Heiress: Or, A Woman Once in the Right. A Comedy, […], London: […] Samuel Briscoe, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 14:

Forms

Relateds

discommode · air commode · incommode · bidet · accommodation · commodious

Synonyms

toilet (toilet) · washstand · chamber pot (chamber pot)

Translations (25)

ru комо́д (low chest of drawers) · es cómoda (low chest of drawers) · bg скрин (low chest of drawers) · it gabinetto (euphemistic: toilet) · mk комода (low chest of drawers) · it angoliera (low chest of drawers) · eo necesejo (euphemistic: toilet) · it porta catino (stand for a washbowl and jug) · eo klozeto (euphemistic: toilet) · de Kommode (low chest of drawers) · eo komodo (low chest of drawers) · it canterano (low chest of drawers) · fr commode (low chest of drawers) · hu komód (low chest of drawers) · fi senkki (low chest of drawers) · it cesso (euphemistic: toilet) · bg тоалетна (euphemistic: toilet) · fi matala lipasto (low chest of drawers) · fi pönttö (euphemistic: toilet) · fr selle (euphemistic: toilet) · sv kommod (low chest of drawers) · bn কমোড (euphemistic: toilet) · fi pesuvatiteline (stand for a washbowl and jug) · it porta bacinella (stand for a washbowl and jug) · it cantoniera (low chest of drawers)