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.

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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

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potato Idioms  

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

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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

“Growing up as a child of immigrants, I was kind of self-conscious about displaying too much of my culture,” she says between bites of spiral fried potato.

From Los Angeles Times

Soups, stews, cheesy casseroles and creamy mashed potatoes are just a few popular options that come to mind.

From Salon

"Carrots are a real focus for them. They even dig potatoes up, believe it or not. The big red deer dig potatoes out of the ground," he explained.

From BBC

"Dutch cuisine is not high-level cuisine -- it's good food. It's always potato, vegetables, meat," he said.

From Barron's

Folded into shepherd’s pie under a blanket of mashed potatoes.

From Salon

Related Words

• yam