Jump To:

• Marco Polo
  Marco Polo

  noun

  Polo, Marco.
• Polo, Marco
  Polo, Marco

  An Italian explorer of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia. He visited the court of Kublai Khan (see “Kubla Khan” under “Literature in English”), the Mongol ruler of China, and became a government official in China. His account of his travels was distributed after his return to Italy.

Marco Polo

American  

[mahr-koh poh-loh] / ˈmɑr koʊ ˈpoʊ loʊ /

noun

1. Polo, Marco.

---

Marco Polo British  

/ ˈmɑːkəʊ ˈpəʊləʊ /

noun

1. See Polo

---

Polo, Marco Cultural  

1. An Italian explorer of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia. He visited the court of Kublai Khan (see “Kubla Khan” under “Literature in English”), the Mongol ruler of China, and became a government official in China. His account of his travels was distributed after his return to Italy.

---

Example Sentences

In Hangzhou, once the capital of Song China, Marco Polo observed markets linked by canals and warehouses that “supply them with every article that could be desired.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 29, 2025

I played Marco Polo in the pool with the Persian kids.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2024

This ultimately resulted in one Marco Polo argali male, a species that can reach 300 pounds, and which does not belong in Montana.

From Slate • Mar. 16, 2024

In January 2013, a Montana livestock worker returned to the United States from Kyrgyzstan hiding tissue from a Marco Polo argali sheep, one of the largest in the world, federal prosecutors said.

From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2024

But beyond this, Fargo to me is brother to the fabulous places of the earth, kin to those magically remote spots mentioned by Herodotus and Marco Polo and Mandeville.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck