The effects of nonionic surfactants on detergency and water wetting/retention properties of soiled cotton cloths were reported. Two different soiled cloths were used. soiled cotton cloth 1 was made in the lab. with carbon black, tripalmitin, n-dodecane & palmitic acid on Korea Apparel Testing & Research Institute(KATRI) cotton testcloth and soiled cotton cloth 2(EMPA 101) was purchased from Testfabrics, Inc., USA. The following nonionic surfactants; l.e., Span 20, Tween 20, 40, 60, 80, 21, 61, 81, 65, & 85, were used in the study. The water retention ratio(W/H) values of soiled cotton cloths were decreased, whereas the water contact angle values of soiled cloth were not changed markedly compared with those of unsoiled testcloths. The wetting and water retention of soiled cotton cloth 1 was improved with addition of nonoinic surfactants. The surfactants which have more hydrophilic characterictics or unsaturated hydrophobe tails were effective in improving wetting and water retention properties of soiled cotton cloth 1. The water contact angle values of soiled cotton cloths were extremely low with Span 20, presumably due to the high adsorption density or the surfactant. The detergency of soiled cloths were low in Span 20 and high in Tween 20, 40, 60 & 80 0.1g/dl surfactant solutions. Nonionic surfactants having higher ethylene oxide contents resulted in better detergency. In the range studied, the wetting and water retention of soiled cotton cloths did not show any particular relation to the detergency, whereas the surfactant characteristics, especially HLB values, influenced the detergency of soiled cotton cloths.