poncho

American  

[pon-choh] / ˈpɒn tʃoʊ /

noun

plural

ponchos

1. a blanketlike cloak with a hole in the center to admit the head, originating in South America, now often worn as a raincoat.

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poncho British  

/ ˈpɒntʃəʊ /

noun

1. a cloak of a kind originally worn in South America, made of a rectangular or circular piece of cloth, esp wool, with a hole in the middle to put the head through

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Other Word Forms

• ponchoed adjective

Etymology

Origin of poncho

First recorded in 1710–20; from Latin American Spanish: further origin uncertain; perhaps from Araucanian pontho “woolen fabric”; perhaps from Old Spanish poncho “a mantle or cloak”; perhaps a back formation from ponchón “lazy, sluggish”; perhaps an alteration of unrecorded pochón, an augmentative of pocho “pale, faded,” and probably akin to pachón “phlegmatic, sluggish”

Example Sentences

One soldier aided an older woman, her body wrapped in a poncho as the clouds thickened above.

From Barron's • Oct. 28, 2025

He wore a white poncho bearing the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2025

A pensioner, who flew in from Norway that morning, is doing the same in a blue pound-shop poncho.

From BBC • Oct. 8, 2024

“When we first came here, in ’64, I was dressed up in a poncho with a holster and a toy gun,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 26, 2024

In his hooded poncho, everything caked with mud, the boy’s face was impossible to make out.

From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien