# Slippers Vs Flip-flops ? (also: beach slippers vs thongs)



## sambistapt

Hello amigos!

Whenever I go to the beach, I put my slippers/flip-flops on.

Which one fits better in the sentence?

Thanks,

Sam

Moderator's note: 
Another thread on the same topic is here: slipper or sandal or flip-flops
Cagey, moderator


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## Cathy Rose

I'd use "flip-flops." Flip-flops are a specific kind of open-toed footwear.  They are usually some sort of plastic material and often have a thong-like piece that goes between the big toe and the second toe.  They "flop" against the bottom of the foot when one walks in them.  Slippers, on the other hand, are generally associated with night time footwear.  They usually cover most of the foot, have little (if any) heel, and can be made of many materials.  We talk about bedroom slippers or ballet slippers, but I have never heard of beach slippers.


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## vicky1027

As Cathy Rose said, flip flops are definitely for the beach. Slippers are for bedtime.


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## Vanda

I've always had the same doubt as Sam! So I can't say these are slippers. 
I had this doubt because I've seen these ones as beach slippers and could never understand the real difference.


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## Toadie

Vanda said:


> I've always had the same doubt as Sam! So I can't say these are slippers.
> I had this doubt because I've seen these ones as beach slippers and could never understand the real difference.


No, those are not slippers.  I don't know why they're labeled like that.

Slippers

Flip flops


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## ewie

They're both definitely _flip-flops_ to me.  I believe they're called _thongs_ in AusE.


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## Dimcl

ewie said:


> They're both definitely _flip-flops_ to me. I believe they're called _thongs_ in AusE.


 
When I was a kid, they were called "thongs".  Since I had no exposure to AusE, I've always assumed that "thongs" were the AE term and that "flip-flops" came along when the "other" thongs did.


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## ewie

Maybe the same thing applies in Australia too, Dimcl.  To the best of my knowledge they've _always_ been called flip-flops here.


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## MagdaDH

To confuse the matter, there are also mules (essentially, anything that has no heel, is an outdoor shoe but not a flip flop: from mule trainers to mule THINGS like that 

Some slippers are actually mule slippers while some are definitely not.

And there are, of course, also, flip-flop slippers.

I would like to know, though, whether most natives would consider these flip-flops. They are usually described as thong sandals.


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## ewie

I'd call that _an extremely uncomfortable-looking flip-flop-sandal hybrid_, Magda


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## Cathy Rose

> They are usually described as thong sandals.


It's a fine distinction, but I think that, in this case, thong sandals would be the best term.  The placement of the foot strap is high enough that they wouldn't make the sound.  Flip-flops is onomatopoeia. I think the term "thongs" was used in AE more commonly before it became the preferred word for a certain kind of underwear. I don't know anyone who uses the term "thongs" anymore.


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## Dimcl

To me, those are sandals.  The photo posted by Toadie is what I call thongs/flip-flops.


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## panjandrum

These labels are a confusion of physical description and functional description.
You can confound that with the mixed use of the term slipper.

As far as I know, you can rely on the term flip-flop to mean something that is very likely to make a flip-flop noise when you walk in it.  It is somewhat loose-fitting and you could kick it off without any bother.
It could be made of anything, but is typically synthetic.

Slippers are generally worn about the home, and only there.  They are comfortable and might even be whimsically-designed.  Examples abound.  They are not intended for outdoor use, or indeed for walking in.

Sandals, on the other hand, or should I say foot, are specifically intended to be worn outside.  Sandals are shoes with holes in.

Back to the confusion about slippers.
This may be a local phenomenon, but in addition to the above definition, this term is used here to refer to any lightweight footwear that is not definitely a shoe.  So, for example, footwear for sports activities may be referred to as slippers.  I think that you can probably forget this paragraph unless you are going to be talking footwear in Northern Ireland and wish to understand the small minority of locals who play tennis, for example, in tennis slippers.  But who knows ...


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## ewie

ewie said:


> I'd call that _an extremely uncomfortable-looking flip-flop-sandal hybrid_, Magda


Sorry, Magda, if pushed I would call that thing a _sandal_ along with Dimcl ~ it's that 'cross-bar' that makes the difference.


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## Cathy Rose

> I think that you can probably forget this paragraph unless you are going to be talking footwear in Northern Ireland and wish to understand the small minority of locals who play tennis, for example, in tennis slippers.  But who knows ...



Well, Pan, this should probably be a new thread, but I was intrigued by "tennis slippers."  I never heard that one.  We call tennis shoes "sneakers" or "sneaks" on the East Coast and I was surprised to hear that my friend on the West Coast never uses that term for athletic/tennis shoes/slippers.


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## ewie

Cathy Rose said:


> I was intrigued by "tennis slippers." I never heard that one


You and me both, CathyR


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## zăpadă

Hi guys ,

Which one do you prefer most as a native speaker ?


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## Rover_KE

Flip-flop.

I've never heard of beach slipper.

Rover


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## Maurice le difficile

In Canada and the US, flip-flop is the word you would use. I have heard them called "shower shoes", but never "beach slippers", although one would know what you mean.


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## zăpadă

Thanks everybody for your comments ,they are really helpful .


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## mgcrules

In Australia we say thongs.


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## zăpadă

Hi mgcrules , thanks for sharing


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## Brioche

And in New Zealand, they wear Jandals.

Jandals - from *J*apanese S*andals*, it is actually a trademark of the Skellerup company, but has become a generic term for this type of rubber footwear.


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## ewie

Hi Stele.  I've merged your thread with a previous one on the same subject

I've never heard the term _beach slippers_ before.  Nor _Jandals._


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## Pedro y La Torre

panjandrum said:


> This may be a local phenomenon, but in addition to the above definition, this term is used here to refer to any lightweight footwear that is not definitely a shoe.  So, for example, footwear for sports activities may be referred to as slippers.  I think that you can probably forget this paragraph unless you are going to be talking footwear in Northern Ireland and wish to understand the small minority of locals who play tennis, for example, in tennis slippers.  But who knows ...



Interesting, I haven't heard of such usage down here. These are always known flip-flops in Ireland, slippers are what one wears around the house while thongs are different things entirely - usually reserved for the females amongst us.


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## ewie

Pedro y La Torre said:


> thongs are different things entirely - usually reserved for the females amongst us.


Oh I don't know, Pedro.
I've never heard of any kind of sports shoes being called _slippers_, either.


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## natkretep

To add to the confusion, a couple of things:

(1) Cinderella is said to have been given glass slippers (in one version of the fairy tale) by her fairy godmother. Things like this are called glass slippers - clearly to be worn out of the house as well.

There are other kinds of ladies footwear that are similar - like 'beaded slippers'.

And there are 'Japanese slippers' - which are flip flops with the straps coming together between the big toe and the next toe - which are worn, with socks, outside of the house

(2) In this part of the world (Singapore, Malaysia), flip flops have traditionally been called  slippers. For disambiguation, we also use the terms 'house slippers' and 'bedroom slippers'. But I'm conscious that this is local usage, and am careful about not using this term in this way to people from other places.


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## Already-Seen

In Hawaii, flip-flops are called slippers or slippahs (in Hawaiian Pidgin).


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## JulianStuart

natkretep said:


> And there are 'Japanese slippers' - which are flip flops with the straps coming together between the big toe and the next toe - which are worn, with socks, outside of the house


In the name of completeness (of relevant terms OR degree of confusion  )
Those are known in Japan (and the large Japanese American community who speak English) as zori and the socks with _special split toes_ to go with them are called tabi.  Note that the "straps" are referred to as the thong.


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## timpeac

A good Australian friend of mine, living in England, still says "thongs" for sandals so I can confirm it is alive and well at least amongst the Australian expat community. As is "durex" for sellotape if memory serves.


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## natkretep

JulianStuart said:


> In the name of completeness (of relevant terms OR degree of confusion  )
> Those are known in Japan (and the large Japanese American community who speak English) as zori and the socks with _special split toes_ to go with them are called tabi.  Note that the "straps" are referred to as the thong.



Many thanks, JS! I didn't know about those socks. Yes, thongs can also refer to straps, as in Mark 1.7:



> After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. (Revised Standard Version)


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## JamesM

To add another word to the mix, we also called them "zorries" in California when I was growing up (probably from the Japanese zori that JulianStuart mentioned), back in the dark ages. "Flip-flops" seems to me to be the most universal term. (I'm still curious what a "tennis slipper" looks like.)


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## JulianStuart

Thanks James.
Just curious : does that mean the word had spread beyond the Japanese-American community or that you grew up with interactions with the community and picked up the word from them yourself?  I think many of them don't speak (much) Japanese and would add an -s to pluralize (even though in Japanese they rarely pluralize) so I'd say it's the same word.


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## xabiachica

don't we all wear crocs now?


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## JamesM

JulianStuart said:


> Thanks James.
> Just curious : does that mean the word had spread beyond the Japanese-American community or that you grew up with interactions with the community and picked up the word from them yourself? I think many of them don't speak (much) Japanese and would add an -s to pluralize (even though in Japanese they rarely pluralize) so I'd say it's the same word.


 
It must have spread beyond the Japanese-American community. They were advertised as "zorries" in some places. Although I had a few Japanese-American friends when I grew up, that was not where I picked up the word. We had actual "zori" (with the straw mat where the foot went) sometimes but we also had thongs/flip-flops that we would call zorries. The words were used interchangeably.

Here's a site that lists them as "zorries":

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.benfranklingifts.com/itemimg%255CO05%255C250x250%255C84630.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.benfranklingifts.com/imageopen.asp%3FImgType%3Ditem%26Book%3DO05%26AdCode%3DPV%26AdPage%3D10%26MaxCol%3D2%26Mode%3DSimple&usg=__6sb1HQLEorXLisfKHZiyKgn4svg=&h=250&w=250&sz=13&hl=en&start=1&sig2=1bgU2ZqVeDVMSgUK5fyVQg&um=1&tbnid=gg_ym6VcmfFNOM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3DZorries%2Bad%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7SUNA_en%26um%3D1&ei=DfCOSrDDPKiQtAOko7mECw


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## hwslippers

hello,everyone

in my opinion, Slippers contain Flip-flops .Flip-flops are beach slippers, In China, people usually ware them in summer.Our factory make Flip-flops ,so i know them that was made of plastic （EVA，PE，PVC）


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## hwslippers

panjandrum said:


> These labels are a confusion of physical description and functional description.
> You can confound that with the mixed use of the term slipper.
> 
> As far as I know, you can rely on the term flip-flop to mean something that is very likely to make a flip-flop noise when you walk in it. It is somewhat loose-fitting and you could kick it off without any bother.
> It could be made of anything, but is typically synthetic.
> 
> Slippers are generally worn about the home, and only there. They are comfortable and might even be whimsically-designed. Examples abound. They are not intended for outdoor use, or indeed for walking in.
> 
> Sandals, on the other hand, or should I say foot, are specifically intended to be worn outside. Sandals are shoes with holes in.
> 
> Back to the confusion about slippers.
> This may be a local phenomenon, but in addition to the above definition, this term is used here to refer to any lightweight footwear that is not definitely a shoe. So, for example, footwear for sports activities may be referred to as slippers. I think that you can probably forget this paragraph unless you are going to be talking footwear in Northern Ireland and wish to understand the small minority of locals who play tennis, for example, in tennis slippers. But who knows ...


 
I agree


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## Haji Shirzad

What is the difference between shower shoes and slippers?


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## Barque

Welcome to the forum.

Shower shoes are meant specifically to be worn in the bathroom. The term "slippers" usually refers to casual footwear for use at home (but in some places has a wider meaning - see below).



natkretep said:


> In this part of the world (Singapore, Malaysia), flip flops have traditionally been called slippers.


The same here. The term "Slippers" here mean any open-toed footwear without a strap that goes around the heel.


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## Copyright

For what it's worth, shower shoes are what the US Marines call the basic rubber flip-flops they're issued in boot camp, no matter where they're worn – but they're often worn in the shower. I haven't heard anyone outside the service call them shower shoes.

Here's a photo of a shower shoe, although probably civilian – ours were much thinner and cheaper and not a cool black. 




As for slippers, I think of them as close-toed slip-ons you wear around the house, often made of fabric (and sometimes fuzz).


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## Hermione Golightly

Hi Haji and welcome.
I haven't a clue what 'shower shoes' means. 'Slippers' means to me various styles of very casual footwear that one wears around the house.


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## Copyright

Here's a previous thread, by the way:
slipper or sandal or flip-flops


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