In my book they are.In my circle of friends,some of us call them tea towels,others call them dish towels.But we're talking about the same thing.Maybe it depends on what part of the country we come from.JMO
Kathi

This is an interesting clarification for me. I call them kitchen towels but have heard friends refer to them as dish towels. I always thought tea towels were something different; unknown to me because they were for a fancy occasion. I imagined the genteel ladies of the south used them.

I think of dish towels as the terrycloth ones, although can be linen. Tea towels would be linen and fancy for special occasions.

In my little part of the world, a dish towel is just any old towel used to dry dishes. A tea towel is nicer and displayed and used when company calls.

beverly

I am actually a yankee born gal, and I can remember my grandmother tell my Aunt to use one of the certain tea towels that she embroiderd, or did crochet work on for tray when serving tea. For drying dishes (no such thing as a dishwasher machine then) they used the old flour sacks which were made of cotton, very absorbent. The terry cloth towels were used for drying hands. There was a term of dish rag too, that was used for washing dishes. Nice to know that the old terms are still being used.

Hi , Everyone Iam from Michigan And have lived in the south most of my life, I was taught that a dish towel, Is for drying dishes and your hands and a Tea towel is for having afternoon tea , The ladies would lay across there knee when having tea To catch any drips or crumbs from whatever was being served with it , and it would be very fancy piece of linen ..