Learn English – Do English speakers in UK or US use the term “iron” for the tool to press clothes to remove creases

word-choice

Do English speakers in UK or US use the term "iron" for the tool to press clothes to remove creases?

E.g. I had a problem to find pictures of iron like this:

enter image description here

What I find mostly was this:

enter image description here

How do the natives distinguish between these two "things"?

Best Answer

The tool for pressing clothes is referred to as an iron, both in British and US English. If you want to remove any doubt whatsoever you can refer to it as a "clothes iron" but mostly this is unnecessary since context will make clear what you mean.

Your second image shows a piece of iron. This would never be described as "an iron" by a native speaker.

Just to confuse you even more there is a third meaning of iron, as a type of golf club:

a golfing iron

Again, generally context will make things clear.

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