Swim trunks, also known as swimming trunks, are a form of

swimsuit A swimsuit is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or List of water sports, water sports, such as swimming, Diving (sport), diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Di ...

- clothing worn specifically for swimming. As such, they are usually made of materials specifically designed for being wet and remaining comfortable and hydrodynamic to not impede the swimmer. The choice of materials makes them distinct from underwear which may have a similar shape. The term is a catch-all for a number of styles of garment - briefs (very short with no leg coverage), shorts (fabric extends beyond the crotch and slightly onto the legs) and "jammers" (extend further down the legs, to mid thigh or even the knee, and popular with competitive swimmers). Especially in North America, the term swim trunks can also include water friendly variants of such articles as beach shorts and board shorts which are typically baggy, casual, and more modest - but which impede the performance of the swimmer.

Other usage

Other items of clothing can also be known as trunks'', such as looser-fitting garments used for boxing and track and field events, and certain styles of

underpants Underpants are underwear worn on the lower body. In British English the term is often shortened to pants and refers to men’s clothing only. Types of underpants Long underpants Long underpants are the bottom half of a style of two-piece unde ...

(especially in British English). In

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

, the term is sometimes used to refer to

trunk hose Hose are any of various styles of men's clothing for the legs and lower body, worn from the Middle Ages through the 17th century, when the style fell out of use in favour of breeches and stockings. The old plural form of "hose" was "hosen". In ...

, defined by the ''Collins American English Dictionary'' as "full, baggy breeches reaching about halfway down the thigh, worn in the 16th and 17th cent." More recently, “trunks” has been used as shorthand for the relatively new trunk briefs, a shorter version of

boxer briefs Boxer briefs (sometimes spelled boxer-briefs or called tight boxers, also known as A-Fronts) are a hybrid type of men's undergarment which are long in the leg, similar to boxer shorts, but tight-fitting like briefs. They emerged as a style in the ...

References

Swimsuits Trousers and shorts {{Clothing-stub