# trash

> English word · Noun · IPA /tɹæʃ/ · frequency rank #3,534

## Definitions
1. Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse.
2. A container into which things are discarded.
3. Something worthless or of poor quality.
4. A dubious assertion, either for appearing untrue or for being excessively boastful.
5. The disused stems, leaves, or vines of a crop, sometimes mixed with weeds, which will either be plowed in as green manure or be removed by raking, grazing, or burning.
6. Loose-leaf tobacco of a low grade, with much less commercial value than the principal grades.
7. People of low social status or class. (See, for example, white trash or Eurotrash.)
8. A fan who is excessively obsessed with their fandom and its fanworks.
9. Temporary storage on disk for files that the user has deleted, allowing them to be recovered if necessary.

## Etymology
From Middle English trasch, trassh, probably a dialectal form of *trass (compare Orkney truss, English dialectal trous), from Old Norse tros (“rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs”), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *þrakjaz (“dirt”). Pokorny instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).
Compare Norwegian trask (“lumber, trash, baggage”), Swedish trasa (“rag, cloth, worthless fellow”), Swedish trås (“dry fallen twigs, wood-waste”). Compare also Old English þreax (“rottenness, rubbish”).

## Easily confused with
- **tray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-tray)
- **tres** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-tres)
- **tris** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-tris)
- **Trav** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trav)
- **trust** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trust)
- **truth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-truth)
- **truss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-truss)
- **Trish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trish)
- **trawl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trawl)
- **Trask** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trask)
- **tryst** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-tryst)
- **trashy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trashy)
- **Trisha** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trisha)
- **trashed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trash-vs-trashed)
- **tra** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tra-vs-trash)
- **task** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/task-vs-trash)
- **trap** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trap-vs-trash)
- **tram** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tram-vs-trash)
- **teas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/teas-vs-trash)
- **Tran** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tran-vs-trash)

## Common misspellings (8)
`rtash`, `tarsh`, `trahs`, `trashh`, `trassh`, `trrash`, `trsah`, `ttrash`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/trash