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potato

American  
[puh-tey-toh, -tuh] / pəˈteɪ toʊ, -tə /

noun

plural

potatoes

  1. Also called white potato.  Also called Irish potato,.  the edible tuber of a cultivated plant, Solanum tuberosum, of the nightshade family.

  2. the plant itself.

  3. sweet potato.

potato British  
/ pəˈteɪtəʊ /

noun

  1. Also called: Irish potato.   white potato. 

    1. a solanaceous plant, Solanum tuberosum, of South America: widely cultivated for its edible tubers

    2. the starchy oval tuber of this plant, which has a brown or red skin and is cooked and eaten as a vegetable

  2. any of various similar plants, esp the sweet potato

  3. slang a delicate or awkward matter

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
potato Idioms  

  1. see hot potato; meat and potatoes; small beer (potatoes).

Usage

Plural word for potato The plural form of potato is potatoes. The plurals of several other singular words that end in -o are also formed this way, including tomato/tomatoes and echo/echoes. In some cases, the plurals of words that end in -o that are adopted from another language can be formed by adding either -es or -s, as in mosquito/mosquitoes/mosquitos or mango/mangoes/mangos. However, this is not the case with potato/potatoes. Potatos is an invalid spelling of the plural of potato.

Etymology

Origin of potato

First recorded in 1545–55; from Spanish patata “potato,” variant of batata “sweet potato,” from Taíno

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.

She compared the work to a game of hot potato.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026

The raw potato write-off, rising factory costs, and inflationary pressures contributed to a higher manufacturing cost per pound.

From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026

The sweet potato coconut soup hit the spot.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

For the first nine days, it is simple and largely vegetarian - sweet flatbread, lentils and potato curry among the staples.

From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026

The potato fields were covered with purple blossoms now, and stone walls zigzagged up and down between.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff

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.