potato

[puh-tey-toh, -tuh]

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

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of potato¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of potato¹

C16: from Spanish patata white potato, from Taino batata sweet potato

Idioms and Phrases

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

Example Sentences

From breakout comedians to beauty innovators, this year's nominees include jacket potato entrepreneurs, tap dancing brothers, a bus loving aunty, a BookTok aficionado and a film location fangirl.

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The issue of grooming gangs in the UK has been a political hot potato for years, with particular sensitivities around ethnicity and race.

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Give me a salad with croutons, crunchy chickpeas, and crushed potato chips.

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On one side of the compound, Mr Goni tends to a potato patch.

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Lundgren: After trying a lot of vodkas, we ended up choosing a potato vodka.

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Related Words

• yam 

When To Use

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.