Same thing, eight ways to say it
How to say “a T-shirt” in Spanish — country by country
The dictionary word is camiseta — RAE/ASALE; understood everywhere — but it is the everyday word only in ES, CO and (alongside playera) MX. In AR, CL and PE camiseta drifts to «undershirt» or «football jersey», so each of those has its own local-standard word (remera / polera / polo). DO and PR lean on English (poloché, t-shirt) plus franela. Here is what you'll actually hear in eight cities, with a cited source for every filled cell.
What people actually say
| Where | They say | Also · notes |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina Buenos Aires | remera | Regional usage Also: chomba (= polo shirt); camiseta = undershirt or football jersey |
| Chile Santiago | polera | Regional usage Also: polerón (thick / sweatshirt); camiseta = undershirt or football jersey |
| Colombia Medellín | camiseta | Standard usage Also: camisilla (undershirt) Medellín vs Bogotá not differentiated in any source. |
| Dominican Republic Santo Domingo | franela | Regional usage Also: poloché (polo shirt; DAMER RD); t-shirt / camiseta DAMER RD gives both the undershirt and the T-shirt sense; the only Dominican poster found uses franela for the undershirt. |
| Spain Madrid | camiseta | Standard usage Also: camiseta de tirantes (tank top); polo = polo shirt |
| Mexico Mexico City | playera | Regional usage Also: camiseta (esp. plain/white or as undershirt: camiseta interior) |
| Peru Lima | polo | Regional usage Also: polo camisero (polo shirt); polera = long-sleeve/hoodie; camiseta = sports jersey |
| Puerto Rico San Juan | t-shirt | Regional usage Also: camiseta; camisilla = undershirt Anglicism; Tesoro PR headword is t shirt with variant t-shirt, feminine — an anglicismo crudo marked usual. |
Grey = the pan-Hispanic dictionary word is what people really say there. Blank = we couldn't source it yet.
Watch out
- camiseta ≠ T-shirt in the Southern Cone. In AR/CL/UY camiseta is the undershirt or the football shirt: lagartija68 (rioplatense) «Camiseta también es lo que se usa(ba) de ropa interior debajo de la camisa»; Aviador (Chile) «Las que se usan por fuera se llaman polera». Also DAMER camiseta has a derogatory Honduran sense («Himen… desp.»). [1][2][3]
- polera = turtleneck in AR/UY, T-shirt in CL/BO, long-sleeve tee in PE, hoodie/sweat in DiPerú: DAMER «polera. 1. Ar, Ur… Prenda de punto… con cuello alto» / «2. Pe. Camiseta deportiva de manga larga» / «3. Bo, Ch. Camiseta deportiva de manga corta»; DiPerú polera «Prenda deportiva externa de abrigo, con mangas largas… generalmente con capucha». [1][2]
- polo = polo shirt (collared) in ES and MX, but the plain T-shirt in PE: lamartus (Spain) in thread 684877; DiPerú polo; DAMER polo has no clothing sense at all. [1][2]
- playera = sneakers/canvas shoes in northern Spain and the Canaries (aldonzalorenzo, heidita in thread 684877; DLE lists playera among synonyms of tenis), and DAMER gives a Honduran sense «Prostituta». Never use playera for a T-shirt outside MX/Central America. [1][2]
- franela = dust rag in MX/EC/PY/AR/UY (DAMER franela I) and «adulación» in PE/AR (DAMER franela); T-shirt/undershirt only in DO/VE/PA/CO. [1]
- remera is absent from the DLE proper but recorded in the Diccionario del habla de los argentinos (cacarulo/veruscio in thread 1477936) and in DAMER for Ar/Ur/Bo/Py. [1]
- DO: poloché / poloshirt = collared polo (DAMER poloche RD); the Dominican Academy's Bruno Rosario Candelier recommends the hispanised spelling «polocher» over «poloshirt» (academia.org.do article; URL not recovered after search budget ran out — verify before citing). [1]
- Register: all cells are neutral/everyday; none is rude. t-shirt in PR is an unadapted anglicism («anglicismo crudo») but marked «usual» by the Tesoro.
- Older AR speakers may still say camiseta for the garment (Peón in thread 1477936: «sigo diciendo 'camiseta'»). [1]
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Start speaking — freeSources
Every filled cell above is backed by human-authored lexicography or a native speaker who says where they're from — ASALE's Diccionario de americanismos, El Colegio de México's Diccionario del español de México, the Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, the Peruvian Academy's DiPerú, and country-stated posts on language forums. Nothing here comes from a model's recall. Spot a mistake? Tell us — corrections from native speakers go straight in.
Read the sources and research notes
- Argentina — remera
- DAMER:
remera. f. Ar, Ur; Bo, Py, pop + cult → espon. Camiseta de manga corta.
↗ - WordReference · pelus (Argentina):
Remera (con mangas, sin cuello agregado)… Camiseta, prenda interior
↗ - Chile — polera
- DAMER:
polera. 3. Bo, Ch. Camiseta deportiva de manga corta.
↗ - WordReference · Vampiro (Chile):
Las que van por fuera, sean como sean: polera, y si es gruesa, polerón
↗ - Colombia — camiseta
- WordReference · Cal inhibes (Colombia):
Camiseta: Con mangas cortas, con o sin cuello
↗ - WordReference · oa2169 (Colombia):
En Colombia… para hombre: camiseta o camisilla
↗ - Dominican Republic — franela
- DAMER:
f. Pa, RD, Co, Ve. Prenda interior de algodón… que cubre el torso. 2. RD. Camiseta, prenda deportiva.
↗ - DAMER: ↗
- WordReference · Minnie121728 (República Dominicana):
Aqui en Republica Dominicana, le llamamos 'Poloshirts', a esas que llevan manga y 'Franela', a las que se usan debajo de una camisa
↗ - Spain — camiseta
- WordReference · Lumia (Spain):
En España, camiseta y si es de tirantes, camiseta de tirantes
↗ - WordReference · Colchonero (Spain):
En España se usa camiseta
↗ - Mexico — playera
- DAMER:
playera. 1. f. Mx, Ni. Camiseta de algodón, de manga corta y sin cuello.
↗ - DEM (COLMEX):
playera s f Camiseta de algodón, generalmente de manga corta: playera de rayas
↗ - WordReference · lineaadicional (Mexico):
Playera: las que son estampadas y tienen mangas
↗ - Peru — polo
- DiPerú:
polo. m. Text. Prenda, generalmente de manga corta, que cubre desde el cuello hasta la cintura o cadera.
↗ - WordReference · ERASMO_GALENO (Perú):
En Perú, polo (que es de manga corta…). Camiseta sólo se usa aquí para los polos de material sintético… deporte
↗ - Puerto Rico — t-shirt
- Tesoro PR:
t shirt… Camiseta. Camisa informal de punto con manga corta y sin cuello… Anglicismo crudo, usual. (ex. «tiene puesta una t shirt promocional color blanca»)
↗ - DAMER:
RD, PR, Ar, Ur. Prenda interior masculina sin mangas
↗
Where we're less sure
- DO — needs a native check. DAMER RD sense 2 («Camiseta, prenda deportiva») supports franela = T-shirt, but the only Dominican poster found (Minnie121728) uses franela for the undershirt and «Poloshirts» for sleeved tops; Dominicans may in practice say t-shirt or poloché for a plain tee. No entry from the Diccionario del español dominicano could be fetched (not online).
- CO — Medellín vs Bogotá not differentiated in any source; both Colombian posters just say «En Colombia… camiseta». Camibuso is NOT in DAMER; do not use.
- PR — the T-shirt cell rests on the Tesoro entry alone (plus DAMER camisilla for the «also»); no WordReference Puerto Rican poster explicitly discussing the garment was found. Tesoro headword is «t shirt» with variant «t-shirt», gender f. (sust.), sources cited there: Morales de Walters 2001 + El Nuevo Día examples.
- PE is solid (DiPerú + two Peruvian posters), as are AR, CL, ES, MX.
- Cells marked «standard (grey)»: CO, ES.
- Source caveat: dle.rae.es returned 403 to every fetch, so the DLE wording quoted in the playera trap (tenis = «zapatillas de deporte»; synonyms bambas/deportivas/playeras; bamba «De Wamba®») comes from search-engine snippets of dle.rae.es/tenis and dle.rae.es/bamba, not from the fetched page — re-check before quoting on a card.