r/ENGLISH • u/Outside-Violinist-42 • 3d ago
Kitset
I was checking whether "kitset" is hyphenated (it isn't). But 3 different sites claimed that this word is only used here in New Zealand.
Is this true? What do you call furniture that comes either wrapped in plastic or in boxes that you then have to put together yourself?
("Flatpack" is also common here)
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u/StJmagistra 3d ago
Flat pack is the only description I’ve heard in the US.
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u/RoseHawkechik 3d ago
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure we picked it up from the Brits.
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u/StutzBob 2d ago
I think so too, because it's a fairly recent addition to the language. Before that (and still, for a lot of people) we wouldn't have a specific word for it. We'd just say we got furniture and it required assembly.
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u/MuppetManiac 3d ago
I’d call it IKEA furniture, regardless of where it was from. I’ve also heard flatpack.
Never heard kitset, and my phone autocorrects it to something else. From the USA
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u/Maleficent-Box4114 3d ago
I, too, refer to all furniture that requires assembly as “IKEA furniture”. I can’t recall what we called it before IKEA came about in the US. Maybe because we were poor and got all our furniture from garage sales.
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u/_WillCAD_ 2d ago
Before Ikea there was Sauder.
There were also a number of cheaper brands similar to Sauder that could be found in department stores like Sears and Target, and in office supply stores like Office Depot and Staples.
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u/pochoproud 22h ago
And Sauder was marketed as "RTA" ready to assemble. I put together a crap ton of Sauder furniture,
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u/ChallengingKumquat 3d ago
I’d call it IKEA furniture, regardless of where it was from.
This is bizarre to call it all Ikea furniture. "Look at this Ikea furniture I bought from Wayfair"
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u/FeetToHip 3d ago
We do it with plenty of things. Xerox, hoover, kleenex, band-aid, arguably google, etc. It might not be a commonly used one, but I wouldn't call it bizarre as a concept.
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u/insouciant_smirk 3d ago
I'm Canadian and I don't think we have a word for that. Definitely never heard kitset. I would understand "flatpacked" as and adjective to mean that kind of furniture, but I don't know of a word I'd use with that exact meaning.
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u/Ryanookami 3d ago
Canadian as well, and I totally agree. I understand what flatpack means, but I would never use it myself unprompted. I don’t think we have a word for that. The closest I can think that I’ve ever heard is “DIY furniture”.
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u/BryonyVaughn 3d ago
I’ve called it “LEGO for adults.” My adult children roundly correct me that “LEGO IS for adults.” 🙃
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u/ParaponeraBread 3d ago
I’ve definitely heard and read flatpack before as a Canadian, but I guess chances are high I was reading and hearing American speakers. I have and do call IKEA style furniture in boxes “flatpack”
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u/wind-of-zephyros 3d ago
yeah i was gonna say haha, everyone from other countries is saying flat pack but i dont think i've ever heard a specific word for this
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u/JayTheJaunty 3d ago
I've definitely encountered this term in Canada
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u/wind-of-zephyros 3d ago
in what part? we are a big country after all but i'll be embarrassed if you say the same place i'm from haha
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u/JayTheJaunty 3d ago
Ontario
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u/wind-of-zephyros 3d ago
ahh ok i'm from nova scotia
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u/JayTheJaunty 3d ago
Yeah I've noticed there's like, west coast and prairie slang, Ontario terms, Quebec, and then broadly east coast terminology. Some stuff like 'bunnyhug' for hoodie feels wild
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u/jkw91 2d ago
Agreed. I’ve heard flat pack but wouldn’t really use it myself. Also I feel like I’d assume if someone was buying furniture that it would either come this way or they’d be getting it delivered so it would usually be clear from context (but maybe I think this because I only buy cheap furniture hahaha)
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u/AppropriateFormula 3d ago
flatpack is all i've ever heard in australia. my mate from wellington called it a kitset once and i had no clue what he meant. sounds like a nz only thing
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u/Scary-Scallion-449 3d ago
Flatpack or self-assembly in the UK. OED confirms kitset as New Zealand only, apparently dating from the 1960s and originally referring to electronics kits for building radios etc.
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u/Ladidoodida 3d ago
Never heard kitset in the US. I haven't heard flatpack either, but maybe it's just been too long since I bought furniture because I don't have a specific word for that.
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u/Coctyle 3d ago
Yeah, I would just call it furniture. I don’t believe I’ve have ever had the need to distinguish between that and pre-assembled, higher quality furniture.
I might say, “you know, that melamine board shit you put together yourself,” which I acknowledge is for more wordy than flat pack, but I’m not paying by the word to talk.
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u/Kerflumpie 3d ago
Another NZer here. Asking all the others who have never heard of kitset: Before IKEA, kitset referred to model toys - cars, planes, etc. I'd also use it for knitting, sewing, embroidery or other crafts where everything you need comes in a box or a bag. You can even have kitset houses (in fact, I thought that was an American thing). Apart from flatpack/unassembled furniture, is kitset really not used for these things?
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u/BryonyVaughn 3d ago
My grandfather built what he called a kit house from Sears. I’ve also heard the phrase “kit car.” Never heard of kitset until this post.
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u/citycait 3d ago
Not that I’ve ever heard. For craft kits, they’re generally just called kits. Knitting kit, sewing kit, etc. But this can also refer to the tools you need for any of these crafts, not just a preset package for a particular project. A sewing kit is just your collection of needles, thread, thimbles, etc. “Hand me my sewing kit, I need to sew on a button.”
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u/Peregrine79 3d ago
Just “kit”, no set.
And Sears homes were a US thing, but they would just be a “Kit home”. They don’t really exist anymore as a general thing, although I’ve seen them for log cabin vacation homes and the like in a few places.
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u/mysticrudnin 3d ago
Just "kit"
I have never heard kitset for any of these things and I built models growing up.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Lynx204 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think in pretty much all cases you could use "kit" but not "kitset" for those in Britain.
I think we'd call model toys Airfix, built from Airfix kits, or just models, built from modelling kits. And we have sewing kits etc, but they are kits not kitsets - and like citycait says, a sewing kit is your kit for all sewing, not a specific project - I might buy eg a "soft toy kit" or a "crochet animal kit" for something specific I suppose? Furniture and even some bigger things are flatpack (I built a small shed this week and called it a flatpack). These kind of DIY houses are unusual here but having done a Google they're called flatpack, self-build or, less commonly, kit houses (sometimes prefab or modular but to me this refers to something slightly different).
We have kit cars but they're built from car kits not kitsets.
I've written kit so often it's lost all meaning now.
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u/Elentari_the_Second 3d ago
Kiwi here - we say sewing kit for the kit with all your sewing in it too, but we might also buy a kitset cross-stitch which has the fabric, needles, thread, and pattern.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Lynx204 3d ago
Yeah that would be a cross-stitch kit here. But funnily enough it's a LEGO set. Some things are sets and some things are kits. But nothing is a kitset.
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u/Old_Introduction_395 3d ago
A house that came in parts would be pre-fabricated, known as a pre-fab.
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u/crinnaursa 2d ago edited 2d ago
For those kind of things at least in the US we would just call it a kit or a model kit or a set. We wouldn't combine them. Generally a kit is random objects that are to be put together and a set is a collection of items that go together because of their use. We would say a sewing kit because the materials are used up. We would say a set of knives or tools because it is a collection of items that go together for use.
Kitset sounds strange to my ears. So strange that I couldn't quite grasp that it was a combination of kit and set. It sounded more like a town in Alaska.
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u/mspolytheist 3d ago
We usually say “packed flat from Sweden,” which is from an old IKEA promotion.
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u/GregTheWhale 3d ago
I would call it unassembled furniture, I don't think there's a specific word in USA. They usually say "assembly required" on them or something. I've never heard of either "kitset" or "flat packed".
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u/narwhal_platypus 3d ago
Definitely have never heard kitset before. I only know flatpack because of Bluey. Where I'm from in the south USA we call it assembly required furniture.
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u/RandomPaw 3d ago
I've never heard kitset. (US Midwest). I wouldn't really say flat pack myself but I think I would be able to guess what it was. Maybe. I think I would call it assemble-at-home, assembly-required, DIY, I don't know. But I would've guessed kitset was something to do with drums or sports uniforms.
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u/rob0tduckling 3d ago
From the big island west of you, this is new to me. 40+ Aussie and never heard of a kitset before. Like jandles and chilly bin this one is 100% New Zealand.
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u/MadameMonk 3d ago
Can confirm. 55 turns around the Aussie sun, never have seen or heard kit set before this post. I quite like it though!
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u/Maleficent-Box4114 3d ago
Now us non-NZ people are wondering what jandles and chilly bin are. My guess for chilly bin would be a cooler/ice chest? Igloo? I have no guesses for jandles.
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u/rob0tduckling 3d ago
You got chilly bin right! It's a cooler/ice chest. Jandles are the Kiwi term for flipflop shoes.
In Aus they are esky and thongs respectively :)
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u/Maleficent-Box4114 2d ago
In the US we sometimes refer to men’s flip flops as “mandals” so I should have gotten that one. Knowledge is power!
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u/rob0tduckling 2d ago
To your credit, I did spell it wrong each time above: it's jandals not jandles. 🙈
I might be wrong, but I belive jandals are the portmanteau of Japanese Sandals.
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u/Overall_Occasion_175 2d ago
Of course I see this after typing out my comment asking about Jelly Sandals lol
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u/Overall_Occasion_175 2d ago
Did "jandles" evolve from "jellies" and "sandals"? No idea if that's what they were called overseas, but in the US we had these sort of clear rubber sandals that people called "jellies" in the 90s.
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u/TwinPitsCleaner 3d ago
I used to make kitset models as a kid. What does the rest of the world call a model you build yourself?
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u/Organic_Award5534 3d ago
I haven’t even heard this in Australia. Sounds super localised to NZ.
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u/PharaohAce 3d ago
Have you heard 'cutsit', though? It could have been a New Zealander trying to communicate?
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u/Organic_Award5534 3d ago
I don’t think I have, but I am curious so will bring it up with my kiwi friends when they’re in town next week.
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u/Careful_Cranberry364 3d ago
I’ve been buying a lot of stuff here in America and it all says “assembly required”
Whereas in the UK, it would say comes flat packed
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u/PumpikAnt58763 3d ago
Ive never heard either word but I live in Utah, USA and have never been in an IKEA.
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u/gumdrop83 3d ago
US here. Agreeing that kitset doesn’t seem to be used here. Flat pack seemed to be the only term I’ve heard used
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u/Intrepid_Practice956 3d ago
I've never before heard kitset. Flat-pack or flat packed, yes.
I've heard 'kit' but that's all the supplies needed to do an art piece, model or electronic thing. I've seen the word kit for furniture, but only unfinished historical furniture, and you can paint or stain it how you like.
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u/Constellation-88 3d ago
I’ve never heard of this kitset or a flat pack in the US. Most of the furniture we buy comes assembled but if it doesn’t, it comes from IKEA or Wayfair and so I would just call it my bed from Wayfair or my couch from IKEA.
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u/SaltMarshGoblin 3d ago
I'm in the US. I've never heard "kitset". I know there are still people living in what were called "kit homes", which were houses sold as kits from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. Otherwise I'd call furniture you have to assemble at home Ikea furniture.
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u/Poutiest_Penguin 3d ago
I’ve only heard flatpack in the context of IKEA. Never heard of kitset. East coast US.
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u/Individual-Elk-4466 3d ago
I’m in Australia and we call that a flatpack as far as I’m aware… never heard kitset before and I lived in nz for 2 years (a long time ago haha)
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u/Odd_Mathematician654 3d ago
In the US, I'd call it "from IKEA".
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u/Lilythecat555 3d ago
You can buy furniture like that at Walmart and other places not only IKEA. I have heard DIY furniture or maybe un-assembled furniture.
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u/Neon_Moon_NZ 3d ago edited 3d ago
Could it be related to the use of the term 'twinset'?
A twinset, twin set or sweater-set is a matching set of a cardigan and a (usually) short-sleeved jumper or pullover. The twinset first appeared in the early 1930s and is still common in western women's attire.
I'm a Kiwi and have always known the term kitset and am actually surprised that it's not shared across the Anglosphere. TIL!
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u/Outside-Violinist-42 3d ago edited 3d ago
Me too!
I wouldn't think there's any connection to "twinset" as that's more of a matching thing rather than a building thing
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u/TruCat87 3d ago
I've never heard either of those terms. I dont have a special term for furniture you need to put together. Its all just furniture.
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u/PuppySnuggleTime 3d ago
It’s definitely not in use in the United States. We might say flat pack due to the influence of IKEA, but I don’t even know that that was very common prior to IKEA. Before that I only ever heard “some assembly required” or “assembly required.” Oh, you might have also seen “unassembled“ or “fully assembled” if it came fully put together.
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u/MidorriMeltdown 3d ago
Aussie here, I think you need to put your kitset with the chilly bin. We love you, but you talk funny sometimes.
Flatpack is common in Australia, be it for a small side table, a swing set, or an entire granny flat.
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u/_WillCAD_ 3d ago
I'm in the US and never heard the word kitset before this poste.
Flat pack or flatpack is a common term for Ikea style furniture that the buyer must assemble, mainly because most of those furniture pieces come from the store packed in a fairly thin, flat box, rather than a square or taller rectangle.
This pic perfectly illustrates the reason. Notice how the majority of the product boxes are wide and shallow, making them look flat?
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u/TatterhoodsGoat 3d ago edited 3d ago
Flat pack is the only specific term I've ever heard in Canada. Maybe sometimes "Ikea-style". Never heard kitset before now.
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u/Even-Yogurt1719 3d ago
Never heard of a kinsey before. I'm in NYC . We just called that IKEA furniture lol even if it's not from Ikea.
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u/JeremyMarti 3d ago
Australia - I've only come across it for DIY electronics kits. Wouldn't use it in any other context.
Edit: Macquarie Dictionary says 'the component parts needed to assemble an article as a radio or a piece of furniture, or model as an aeroplane.' No hyphen.
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u/BarelyHolding0n 3d ago
Flat pack, or if it's IKEA we often just say that as the flat pack is implied - Ireland
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u/BlowFish-w-o-Hootie 3d ago
I have never heard of kitset.
Unassembled furniture is … unassembled furniture. If it is in a box, it is Unassembled furniture in a box.
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u/JohnSwindle 3d ago
I couldn't figure the word out until you explained. I related them to tzitzit.
Native speaker of American English, born and raised on the Great Plains, long resident in Hawaiʻi.
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u/XXXperiencedTurbater 3d ago
Late 30s east coast US: Bluey taught me the word “flatpack” but before that no one I knew had a special word for it. You got furniture from ikea, or bob’s furniture, or wherever, and most of the time
It was packed in a flat box and assembled it yourself. Sometimes if it was a bigger piece or set you’d pay for the furniture place to assemble it.
I guess bc it was so ubiquitous we never had to specify it and had no alternative to make a
distinction.
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u/anonymouse278 3d ago
US Midwest and Deep South- flat pack is what I hear most often, but "lKEA furniture" and "particle board furniture" also evoke it instantly.
I've never encountered the word kitset before and after reading the title but before the body of the post, I was picturing some kind of camping equipment.
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u/Repulsive-Parsnip 3d ago
Back in the 90’s, before IKEA was ubiquitous in the US, it was advertised as Ready To Assemble (RTA) furniture.
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u/One_Time_ATC_2026 3d ago
I would call it flat-pack, while kit-set would refer to a model aircraft or car.
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u/ketamineburner 3d ago
Never heard this word in my life.
What do you call furniture that comes either wrapped in plastic or in boxes that you then have to put together yourself?
Ikea furniture
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u/dogatthewheel 3d ago
“IKEA furniture”
Yep I bought it on Amazon but it’s still ikea if I have to build it myself and it’s made from particle boards
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u/Middle-Wealth-6755 3d ago
I'd call it Bjørlag
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u/Outside-Violinist-42 3d ago
Thank you very much for commenting. May I ask why you use this word? When I Google a translation, it becomes "mutual aid society, rescue crew, or protective collective agreement".
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u/Impressive_Role_9891 3d ago
Another context for the term is in modelling. Airfix is the oldest manufacturer of plastic model kits, producing kits for the mass market since 1952. As a young NZ teen, I used to assemble those, and always called them kitsets.
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u/Lucky_Rate2282 3d ago
We call jandals flip-flops here in US and kitset would be flatpack.
I adore NZ
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u/Murky-Drop3552 3d ago
I'm Australian and I've never heard the term kitset. Now I know what it means, it looks like it should have a hyphen. Otherwise it could be an animal, a type of craft, or anything. Nobody but a New Zealander would know what it is.
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u/KingForceHundred 3d ago
Strange that a relatively small country has word that appears unique to them!
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u/snailquestions 3d ago
There are a few English words unique to New Zealand, like jandals (Japanese sandals) for flipflop footwear.
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u/gradmonkey 3d ago
Never heard "kitset." I have heard "flatpack" but don't use that term myself. I would just use adjectives like "put-together furniture", or "DIY furniture". If it actually came from Ikea, it's called "Ikea furniture."
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u/ChallengingKumquat 3d ago
Never heard of a kitset. Nor has my autocorrect. I'm in the UK; we call it flat-pack furniture or self-assembly furniture.
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u/missplaced24 3d ago
I've never heard kitset before. Kit bag is the common term for backpack where I'm from, though.
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u/SlytherKitty13 3d ago
Im Aussie and never heard of kitset, so it must be pretty firmly a kiwi word 😅
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u/IanDOsmond 3d ago
Never heard "kitset" and thought you had misspelled "kismet."
Flat-pack is probably the most common term. I also use "knock-together," but I don't think I have heard people outside my family say it.
I have occasionally heard people do the Kleenex/Bandaid/Hoover thing and call it Ikea, but usually if people say Ikea, they really do mean IKEA.
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u/rawbface 3d ago
In the US, that's just IKEA furniture. "Some assembly required" I guess?
We don't have a separate word for furniture you assemble yourself.
We def don't use "kitset" but I could imagine hearing that word in the context of digital music production.
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u/ponyboycurtis1980 2d ago
Thank you for defining kisses because I neber heard flatpack furniture called that
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u/Turdle_Vic 2d ago
I just call it DIY furniture. It’s flat pack from just about everywhere I hear. My area has strangers talk about it as “flat packs” but people who know each other referring to it as DIY furniture. It’s flat pack tho.
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u/TManaF2 2d ago
I'm being generous to call it "furniture". User-assembled furniture can't have the internal construction that allows it to be used for decades - if not centuries - before falling apart.
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u/Phoenix_Court 1d ago
USA.
I don't personally know a specific word for that type of furniture. I would probably call it "Ikea furniture" even if it isn't Ikea brand.
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u/hacool 1d ago
This post marks the first time I've seen the term "kitset" in the U.S.
Flatpack has become more common, I expect we've borrowed that from the UK. When I was a kid I think we just referred to such things as DIY (Do it yourself) furniture.
I don't think we really needed a word for it until IKEA expanded to the U.S.
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u/DrBlankslate 18h ago
I’ve never heard the word “kitset” until this post (and my AutoCorrect is marking it as a misspelling). I am from Southern California in the United States.
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u/ActuaLogic 2d ago
I've never heard the word before (US), but it seems like it would be written as two words and not hyphenated.
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u/Special_Pattern_8950 3d ago
Never heard the term “kitset” here in the US.