poet
noun
a person who composes poetry.
poet
1 American
[poh-it]
/ ˈpoʊ ɪt /
poet.
2
American
abbreviation
-
poetic.
-
poetical.
-
poetry.
poet
British
/ ˈpəʊɪt /
noun
-
a person who writes poetry
-
a person with great imagination and creativity
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of poet
1250–1300; Middle English poete < Latin poēta < Greek poiētḗs poet, literally, maker, equivalent to poiē-, variant stem of poieîn to make + -tēs agent noun suffix
Explanation
If you’re a poet and you know it, you’re someone who writes poems. Poets have been charming people with their words ever since Orpheus sang his way to Hades and back. A poet is a writer who regularly publishes poems, but a poet can also be anyone who uses language creatively. Try it! The root of poet can be traced back to the Greek poein, "to make." Some poets write in carefully metered, rhyming lines, while others compose looser prose poems or "free verse," and the very best poets convey something that's essential or true. The Romantic poet William Wordsworth described good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”
Vocabulary lists containing poet
Reading: Literature - Poetry - Introductory
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Reading: Literature - Poetry - Middle School
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Reading: Literature - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The day my classes were deleted in 2021, I did an emergency phone shrink session where my therapist reminded me that with stints as a poet, novelist and journalist, I was well-versed at reinvention.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
She became set on tracking down The Unburned Book by Taiwanese poet Yang Du, a bittersweet reflection on protesters who later went into exile.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The poet has for a very long time been associated with the Izmir region of Turkey's Aegean coast, which for most of its history was known as ancient Smyrna.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
Berger’s star recruit was Alexander Ruika, a talented young poet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
The account of Orpheus with the Argonauts is told only by Apollonius of Rhodes, a third-century Greek poet.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
“Andrea was truly a rock star poet. So many of Andrea’s words have quietly guided me through life’s twists and turns- I will forever be so grateful.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2025
"To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet. The most beautiful defeat of my career."
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2025
I realized, “Oh, the character is a poet. I’m going to step aside and let you, a poet, inhabit the character.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2023
“Culture isn’t dead. We have a governor who’s a poet. How great is that?” said Bushell, who has since published “Balancing Act 2: An Anthology of Poems by Fifty Maine Women.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2023
“Francois Rabelais. He was this poet. And his last words were ‘I go to seek a Great Perhaps.’
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
Gerd believes it's important to look both to the future and to a history before the Nazi era, when German-speaking lands were known as a place of "poets and thinkers."
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
“I’m very grateful to the litigious poets who forced us to change our name,” Heiser adds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Auden, one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent poets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
"I remember reading the Seamus Heaney poem Digging, and thinking 'why are we reading a poem about potatoes'. Now he's one of my favourite poets, but it was just another subject I had to learn."
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
In the later poets his forge is often said to be under this or that volcano, and to cause eruptions.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
