A user on an ESL forum says,
Cloths are pieces of fabric — for instance, washcloths or tablecloths.
Clothes are wearing apparel — shirts, pants, etc.
Is this correct? And do we still use the word cloths? I’ve never seen it before.
— Google Ngram viewer. PS. How is Ngram pronounced? N-gram?
Answer
Yes, we still use it, and yes, it is usually a piece of cloth or fabric, typically with a specific use. As you see from your own examples, we use it more often as the plural of a compound word such as washcloth, dishcloth, or tablecloth.
For an example of the use of the word on its own, google "burp cloths". You will find all sorts of them for sale; burp cloths are cloths (pieces of cloth) that you can put on your shoulder while you're burping your baby, so he won't spit up on your clothes.
You can also use "cloths" to mean different kinds of cloth, as in "We have several cloths that will fit your needs" or "our hand-tailored shirts use only the finest cotton cloths from Egypt". Saying "cloths" instead of "cloth" here implies that there is more than one type of finest cotton cloth coming from Egypt. However, in this situation, "fabrics" is probably a bit more often used nowadays.
p.s. "EN-gram" is how I pronounce Ngram.
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