Cheers meaning: thanks, bye, or both

Three jobs, one word

Cheers does three things. Raised with a glass, it’s a toast. Said to the person holding the door, it means thank you. Typed at the end of an email, it means goodbye, and usually thanks as well, since most emails ask for something.

Dictionaries mark the thanks and goodbye senses as informal and British. Broader references list them across the Commonwealth, and name the email sign-off outright. Of the sign-offs in the corporate jargon dictionary, cheers is the one you can say with a glass in your hand.

Where cheers travels

British and Australian offices sign off with it without a second thought, from the intern to the finance director. In a thread with a client who only knows the toast, a cheers at the bottom can look like a small celebration, and they may wonder what’s being celebrated.

That’s the main risk, and it’s small. The worst case is a reply asking what the occasion is.

Gen Z may be retiring it. Out of nearly 1,400 young workers on both sides of the Atlantic, one named cheers as a sign-off.

In a mixed thread, match the other side. If the client writes kind regards, write kind regards back; once they write cheers, you’re cleared to do the same.

Cheers on its own

In chat, cheers can stand alone. Someone sends the file, you reply cheers, and the exchange is over: thanks and goodbye in one word, the most efficient conversation the office manages all day.

British offices keep a whole ladder of thanks. Ta is the smallest, for a passed stapler. Cheers covers most favours. Thanks and many thanks handle real work, and much appreciated is for anything that cost someone their evening.

Cheers and the other casual closers

On the scale of sign-offs, cheers sits at the friendly end with thanks and see you. Regards is the formal end of the same shelf, and all the best is the warm goodbye for someone you may not see again.

Fourth on the friendly list

UK workers rank cheers fourth among friendly closings, behind wishing someone a great day, many thanks and best wishes. It beats warm regards, all the best and best regards, each of them longer.

A one-word goodbye from the pub outranked three phrases from the letter-writing manual. British email has its priorities.

Cheer once meant face

The root is an old French word for face. Around 1200, cheer meant a person’s expression, and from about 1400 it mostly meant a glad one. “Be of good cheer” is that sense, still in use.

The shout of encouragement turns up in 1720. Offices still ask for a big cheer for the quarterly results, and get a polite one.

The toast came in 1919

Cheers as a toast is British, and on record from 1919. Nobody has pinned down when the thanks and goodbye senses started. Both are informal, and both now do more work in offices than the toast does.

Cheers for the extra slide

The casual tone is useful cover. “Can you add a slide on Q4, cheers” is a request with the thanks already paid. It’s the same trick as thanks in advance at half the length, and it’s hard to refuse something that has already thanked you.

When cheers goes formal

The word has a ceiling. Cheers to the CEO reads as a pat on the back, and cheers on a complaint reads as a shrug. For those, sincerely or best regards does the lifting.

Cheers, mate

Add mate and the register drops another floor. Cheers, mate is fine between two people who have shared a lift breakdown. In an email to the legal team it is a cry for help.

Cheers at the end of a call

On a video call, cheers can take a full minute. Somebody says cheers, then cheers, bye, then a round of cheers from every tile. The last person to click leave gets a second of silence alone with the host.

Ollie confirms the room

Subject: RE: Room for Thursday

Hi Raj, I’ve booked the room from 2 to 4 and the projector is working again. I’ll bring the printouts and the good markers.

Cheers Thanks, bye, Ollie