At this point I'm struggling to tell the difference between these, especially since most artists don't seem to bother either. Maybe some of these tags could be condensed.

Pantyhose (panties + hose) could probably imply tights and stockings as they're a variety of the latter two, usually made of nylon with a distinct appearance and covering the full foot up to the waist. However, tights can be made of different materials and look different from pantyhose. Stockings AKA "hose" are the same way, but also often just cover some portion of the legs without the panties portion connecting them, like regular old socks.

Thigh-highs AKA hold-ups could probably imply stockings. They aren't held up by garters/suspenders but by an elastic band on the thigh.

Leg_warmers are basically footless socks that don't connect anywhere (else they'd be some sort of pants).

It's always been a bit of a tangle. I think there's some regional usage differences that make some of them synonyms in some regions, but separate terms in other regions. So it gets muddy.

As best as I know:

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• how high does it reach up the leg?:

- thigh_highs = the boot/sock/legwear goes all the way up to their thighs
- knee_highs = the boot/sock/legwear goes all the way up to their knees

note: both are used for a wide variety of legwear, and not just for socks.
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• leg_warmers are basically footless socks. They only cover some part of the leg. Some are loose, some are tight, some are long up to the thigh and some are short just around the ankle. But it's just the leg part. It's like a footless sock.

• toeless_* etc are like partial socks, they cover part of the foot but they leave the toes/end of the foot exposed. They're like halfway between leg_warmers (footless socks) and actual socks (cover the whole foot). It's like a toeless sock.

(note: Anatomy sometimes makes it tricky to decide how far down the lower limb is really footless vs toeless... but not all taggers are very precise either, possibly because it's been a mess for so long)

• And there are also stirrup_* socks/leggings/etc. Which basically is both toeless AND heel-less, with a loop/strip that goes around the middle of the foot. It looks a bit like when you have your foot through the stirrups while riding a horse.

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• leggings are basically skin tight pants, with stretchy, spandex-like fabric. They cover over the crotch/waist, but not feet. They often don't have a lot of visible seams or pockets like regular tight pants do.

Yoga pants are leggings. Jeggings are jean or denim fabric heavily mixed with elastic/spandex to make it into leggings with jean print or details. Some leggings are athletic, some are comfort, some are fashion, and some are meant for layering under clothes for warmth. But they all have that same basic concept.

note: at least one regional dialect sometimes uses 'leggings' for any kind of legwear. Which probably doesn't help with mistags.
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• pantyhose and tights are roughly the same fit and style. They are thin and stretchy, that cover both the feet and also go up to the waist.

- Pantyhose tends to be sheer and often flesh-colors. Some are formal or office. Some are fetish or lingerie. They tend to be a basic wardrobe staple regardless of the fashion tends though.
- Tights tend to be thicker, opaque and sometimes brightly colored. These tend to come and go with fashion trends. Also sometimes used with dance or ballet. Or schoolgirls. Or just for warmth.

note: afaik British English uses "tights" to mean = "pantyhose". Which doesn't help. Perhaps consolidating both types into 'pantyhose' and then using translucent_* (something like translucent_pantyhose maybe?) to distinguish the sheer kind could work. Between translucent_* and glistening_* all aspects of hosiery that are easily visible would be taggable/searchable. And with a lot more accuracy than the current mixture. So it's an idea.

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socks vs stockings

Both come in a range of styles and lengths. The main difference is in the fabric (which is often impossible to tell in a drawing). So these could probably be consolidated under one tag, but combining socks with stockings tends to bother some people every time I've seen it discussed. And not consistently settle on which direction to go either. So we still have both in some places, even though the images under them are mostly used the same way.

The general differences:

• Stockings are thinner, hosiery type fabric. Some are sheer like pantyhose, some are opaque like tights, some are very lingerie style with lace or fishnet or fancy tops, and some are brightly patterned, some are officewear, etc. But in general, stockings tend to be thinner, more stretchy, more spandex or hosiery in fabric type. Sometimes sheer, sometimes not.

• Socks tend to be thicker with a different texture (they're more likely to look 'ribbed' for instance) and they are sometimes more practical. Never sheer.

But when it comes to tagging and how it looks in a picture? They look indistinguishable all too often. The only parts that you can reliably tell are:
- sometimes height (are the boots/socks/armor/whatever knee_highs? or thigh_highs? or all the way up to the waist?).
- any translucency vs opaqueness they have.
- any glistening highlights (regardless of style, translucency or other factors)

So tags for those aspects are probably the most practical to keep/have. Maybe a few that could be consolidated (pantyhose vs tights; socks vs stockings). But for a lot of these, I think they mostly just need cleaned up and to have better wikis. They've been left vague for quite a while and so it shows.

ohohohohohoooooo we have some LEG connoisseurs

I too have my opinions

TO ME PERSONALLY

Pnatyhose is like leggings but it's drawn to be more translusent. If I can SEE THE PANTIES under the supposed "Leggings" I would not tag leggings but pantyhose instead

Both Pantyhose and leggings go just near the waiste, if the "material" seems darker and looks more sturdy, I tag it as leggings

when it comes to tights this could imply stockings, leggings, or even pantyhose as well. But TIGHTS means that it's also compact, restrictive...tight....

thigh_highs to me are like stockings but this one is an iffy for me. See I don't use this tag when I can just tag stockings instead. The only time I ever use this tag is when the stocking looks like it's made of SOCK-LIKE material. In which I also tag it with thigh_high_socks

I persoannly have been a big advocate for the toeless- & stirrup- tags which that in itself only adds more to this convo than needed.
Toeless- isn't just for socks though and neither is stirrups- they have their own pleathora of leg tags from socks to full one-piece clothing.

Everyone's definitions are very similar but subtly different, and that makes reaching an endpoint just the tiniest bit tricky. At the very least, I'm leaning towards aliasing either pantyhose or stockings to some other tag; a lot of the distinction here seems to be around the material, but art styles can render the legwear in a way that's impossible to distinguish. Might be simpler to throw out one of the tags altogether.