Learn English – the difference between “clothes” and “clothing”

differencesnouns

Do some google I find that clothes work like objects like:

  • You should pack your clothes. → Yes
  • You should pack your clothing. → No

Can you tell me the main difference between clothing and clothes?

Best Answer

Clothes are those items you wear.

Clothing is pretty much the same, but it seems it can refer to a special type of clothes (the type it refers to depends on the context).

You can see a useful note on the OALD that I'll paste here for future reference:

Clothes or clothing?

Clothing is more formal than clothes and is used especially to mean ‘a particular type of clothes’. There is no singular form of clothes or clothing: a piece/an item/an article of clothing is used to talk about one thing that you wear such as a dress or shirt.

Related Topic