Toggle

How to spell toggle

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce toggle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does toggle mean?

1. verbTo switch back and forth between two states or options, often with a single control.
2. nounA switch, control, or small bar-shaped fastening that moves between two positions.

Toggle in a sentence

• verb

  Press the key to toggle between light and dark mode.

• noun

  Her coat fastened with a wooden toggle and a loop instead of buttons.

• verb

  You can toggle the notifications on or off in the settings menu.

• noun

  The app added a simple toggle to turn dark mode on and off.

Where does toggle come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

Toggle is a word of genuinely uncertain origin that first appears in English around the 1760s as a nautical term. It described a short pin or crossbar pushed through the eye of a rope or a loop to act as a fastening, the way a duffel coat is still done up today with a small wooden bar and a loop. No earlier source has been pinned down with confidence, though some have linked it to the dialect word 'tug', because a toggle holds against a pull, and to the broad family of words like 'tog' for clothing. In the twentieth century mechanics borrowed it for a lever or switch that flips firmly between two settings, and from there computing adopted the verb 'to toggle', meaning to flip a feature on and off. The doubled g is the usual spelling trap: the short vowel before it signals the double consonant, just as in 'wiggle' and 'juggle'.

How the word is built

• toggle (a pin or crossbar passed through a loop)
• verb use 'to switch back and forth'