Does ‘Cheers’ Mean a Toast, Thanks—or Goodbye?

Why Do Australians Say It This Way? · Season Two: After the Words · Article 24

Somebody holds a door and you say Cheers. A telephone call nears its end and the other person says All right, cheers, bye. People raising their glasses at a gathering also say Cheers! If the only meaning you have learnt is the drinking toast, the first two settings make it seem as though invisible alcohol is always nearby.

Australian English uses cheers in three main ways: as a drinking salutation, as thanks, and as a friendly goodbye. The April 2015 issue listed on the Australian National Dictionary Centre’s Ozwords archive explains that Australian usage broadly resembles other Englishes. The toast and leave-taking senses date from the early twentieth century, while the “thanks” meaning is not recorded until the 1970s. The latter two originated in British English and are now common in Australia.

Position in the action matters more than dictionary order

When somebody hands you an object or completes a small favour and you immediately say Cheers, it is an informal thanks. When glasses are raised and people are about to drink, the toast is obvious. When a conversation has entered its closing phase, the word may perform thanks and leave-taking together.

The three functions are not sealed compartments. Cheers, thanks for that. Bye on the telephone both recognises assistance and confirms that the parties are ready to finish. One word can extend across two actions because conversational closings often need to summarise cooperation and maintain the relationship at the same time.

Research on closing conversations argues that thanks does more than express gratitude. It can help participants confirm that the service or exchange has reached a satisfactory completion and that they may leave the activity together. A 2024 corpus study comparing British, Australian and Hong Kong web English found the relative frequency of cheers highest in the Australian component—roughly twice the British rate and three times the Hong Kong rate. Web data cannot represent every spoken setting, but the finding supports the expression’s prominence in Australian usage.

Why do telephone endings sometimes sound like a string of words?

Real telephone calls rarely end at the exact second when factual content finishes. Speakers first use forms such as all right or okay then to indicate that the topic can close. They may express thanks and then exchange bye. This gives both parties a chance to check for unfinished business and prevents one person from abruptly severing the interaction.

You may therefore hear:

All right, no worries. Cheers, mate. See ya. Bye.

This is not necessarily five repetitions of one meaning. All right accepts the current outcome. No worries handles a possible burden. Cheers thanks the other person. See ya preserves a future relationship, and bye finally closes the channel. Speakers do not need the complete sequence on every call; relationship and setting determine its length.

Learners need not reproduce the whole chain. Thanks, bye or Cheers, bye is enough in many calls. If somebody uses cheers as thanks, No worries is a possible response. If it is already functioning as the final farewell, a nod, See you or Bye will do.

How formal is Cheers in an email?

Among Australian colleagues, Cheers is a familiar, friendly email sign-off, generally less formal than Kind regards. It can carry an element of thanks, especially when the message contains a request. If the relationship is new, the subject is serious, the recipient prefers formality, or a legal or complaint record needs precision, Kind regards, Regards or an explicit Thank you may be safer.

No permanent hierarchy chart can settle the matter. Some senior managers use Cheers every day; some colleagues consider it too casual. Organisational habits, the other person’s previous messages and the content of the email provide better evidence. Matching the overall level of formality is more natural than mechanically adding Cheers because an online guide says Australians use it.

Nor is the word always enough for substantial gratitude. If somebody has spent months helping you through a difficult problem, a solitary Cheers may minimise the contribution. Thank you—I really appreciate the time you put into this better matches the scale of the action. Informality should not make real effort disappear.

Why Season Two ends here

This season has repeatedly asked what happens after the words. I’ll see how I go did not automatically create a promise. No rush did not remove every deadline. We should catch up still required somebody to turn friendly intention into a date. Cheers stands at the exit from interaction and helps participants recognise that a small act of cooperation has been completed and they can leave on friendly terms.

Understanding it does not require one permanent translation. Look at whether people are raising a glass, receiving an object, or ending a call. Meaning changes with the expression’s position inside the action.

That is also the final conclusion of Season Two. Expressions are not labels attached to objects. They organise choices, responsibilities and next steps. Understanding Australian English means more than knowing what each word “equals”. It requires noticing who is expected to do what next, and when participants jointly treat an activity as complete.

Primary sources and further reading

• Australian National Dictionary Centre, Ozwords archive (including April 2015)
• Cambridge Dictionary, “cheers”
• “Politeness Variation: Politeness in Britain, Australia, and Hong Kong”
• Guy Aston, “Say ‘Thank You’: Some Pragmatic Constraints in Conversational Closings”

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Continue reading: Why Do Australians Say It This Way? — series overview