Toto is the little dog in *The Wizard of Oz* — Dorothy's dog, the small black terrier who is carried in a basket, who runs away at the start and pulls back the curtain at the end to show that the great Wizard is only an ordinary man hiding behind it. Because the story is so widely known in English-speaking countries, the name is used as a shorthand: to say someone "pulled a Toto" or that a small thing "pulled back the curtain" points to that scene.

The one line every English speaker knows is Dorothy's, spoken to the dog when she lands in a strange bright world: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." People quote it — usually shortened to "we're not in Kansas anymore" — whenever they find themselves somewhere unfamiliar. Hearing that sentence and knowing where it comes from is worth more to a learner than the name itself.

As a proper noun, it takes a capital T. Two other Totos exist that may confuse you: an American rock band from the late 1970s (the ones who sang "Africa"), and a large Japanese maker of toilets and bathroom fittings, whose name is on many toilets in Taiwan.