shorter and more general; can also refer to ceremonial or academic garments
Common Mistakes
I wore my bathrobe to the formal dinner.
I wore my bathrobe to relax at home after a long bath.
bathrobes are informal home wear, not suitable for formal occasions.
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/1
Bathrobe, dressing gown, and robe all refer to loose garments worn indoors, but they differ in use and region. A bathrobe is typically made of thick, absorbent fabric such as towelling and is worn especially after a bath or swim. A dressing gown is more common in British English and is often a lighter garment worn over pyjamas or nightwear — you might put on a dressing gown before breakfast without having bathed. Robe is the most general term; it can mean a bathrobe or dressing gown, but also refers to ceremonial or academic garments (a judge's robe, a graduation robe). In American English, bathrobe is the everyday word for the garment worn after bathing, while dressing gown sounds old-fashioned. In British English, dressing gown is the usual term regardless of whether you have just bathed.
Bathrobe is a compound of bath and robe, first used in English in the early 1900s when indoor plumbing became common and a dedicated garment for drying and covering after bathing became popular. Bath comes from Old English bæþ (meaning 'immersion in water for washing'), and robe comes from Old French robe (meaning 'a long outer garment').