Australian Slang For Quilt (Helpful Content!)

The most common Australian slang term for quilt is “doona”. This term is used widely throughout the country by people of all ages and demographics, and is certainly the most uniquely Australian term for quilt. However, you will also hear more common terms like duvet, blanket, or sometimes just as “bedding” or “linen”.

“Doona” is one of those slang terms that is just instantly recognizable as Australian.

It is a quintessentially Aussie piece of slang and without doubt the most commonly used slang term for quilt in the country.

Many Australians will prefer to use standard words like duvet or quilt for this, but they will certainly know the word doona.

Let’s find out more.

What do Australians call a quilt?

The most common and most quintessentially Australian slang term for a quilt is a “doona”.

This term is used more or less throughout the country in all of the Australian states.

When someone uses this term, though a non-Australian could easily mistake it for one or two other common Australian slang terms like “dunny”, they mean quilt.

Whether old or young, from pretty much any Australian demographic, the term that will most likely be used is “doona”.

Of course, because it is slang, you are much more likely to hear it used in specific contexts, like familiar and informal settings, rather than just anywhere.

With that said, if there was a single slang term that was the universal one for quilt in Australia it is certainly doona.

Simply because it is so well established, it would not be all that crazy to hear the term used in more formal settings like work settings, if the need to discuss quilts came up at work!

As mentioned, there are other slang terms you may get this confused with if you are not familiar with Australian lingo.

“Dunny”, for example, is a toilet, so don’t get those two confused—“donna”, on the other hand, is a kind of kebab meat.

This one is not exclusive to Australia, but you could certainly still confuse the two if you aren’t an English speaker, let alone an Australian.

Now, of course, this is not the only term that all Australians use for a quilt.

Many of them, it’s worth pointing out, will simply use the term quilt.

This is very widely used in Australia and everyone knows what it means.

On the other hand, you may sometimes hear them referred to as a “duvet”, although this is far less common in Australia than in Europe.

On some rare occasions, you may hear a quilt called a blanket, but they are usually separate words for separate things.

Why do Australians say doona?

The answer to this question is quite simple.

Beginning in the 1970s as best anyone can tell, there was an advertising campaign for a brand called Doona which produced quilts and duvets in Australia.

This brand became so popular and well known that it became synonymous with the quilts themselves, and so everyone began calling quilts “doonas”.

This is similar to the way Americans refer to tissues as a “Kleenex”, or Brits referring to vacuum cleaners as a “Hoover”.

Since the 1970s, Doona gained enormously in popularity to the point that they were the number one quilt brand in the country.

Though there are many more competitors now, the word remains synonymous with quilts.

Indeed, many younger Australians often are not even aware of where the term comes from—it is simply the term they’ve always heard used and barely even registers as slang in that sense.

But Doona, as mentioned, is not the only word for a quilt—so where does duvet come from?

Why do Australians say duvet?

Duvet is far less common in Australia than it is elsewhere.

In the UK, for instance, it is more or less the only term widely used to describe the quilt that goes on one’s bed.

The word itself is very old, having first been recorded in English in 1758.

The word is directly borrowed from French, where the word duvet meant “down” as in the down of the blanket.

French has played a relatively small role in the English of Australia, but in the modern world it is difficult to avoid these kinds of shared terms entirely.

Australia was, after all, originally a British colony, so this is simply how the term spread to the country.

What else do Australians call quilts?

In some cases you may hear quilts referred to by other names in Australia.

One such name could be “blanket”.

As in most other English speaking countries, though, a quilt and a blanket are not the same thing.

A blanket is something lighter and generally, something you might use on the sofa or even as a decorative piece.

Many will indeed use blankets on their beds, but again they are unlikely to sleep under them—this is what a quilt is for.

Despite this, you may from time to time hear a quilt called a blanket in Australia.

So, the most common term you’ll hear used today for quilt in Australia is “doona”.

This is by far the most common slang term, and definitely the quintessential Australian slang term for a quilt or a duvet.

At the same time, many Australians prefer the standard terms and may be more inclined to avoid using this term, but they are certain to know what it means.

If you were after a uniquely Australian slang term for quilt, then doona has you covered.