potato

American  

[puh-tay-toh, -tuh] / pəˈteɪ toʊ, -tə /

noun

• potatoes
  plural

1. 

   Also called white potato, 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.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• potatoey
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• potatoes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of potato

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

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Explanation

The potato is a mighty tuber! You can find it baked, mashed, or fried, among other things, in kitchens the world over. Potato, which comes from the Spanish word patata, originally meant "sweet potato." Potatoes have been around for quite awhile. If you'd lived in the Andes 1800 years ago, you might have been eating potatoes ever since (though you might be sick of them by now). Remember that the plural form of this starchy vegetable ends in "toes."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

potato potatoes

From Burbank to West Covina, lines tend to form out the door at each of the chain’s locations, with patrons ordering boxes of their signature potato balls, cheese rolls and other pastries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Think of the logic of salt-and-vinegar potato chips: starch loves that sharp little counterpoint.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

The useful motive is the one everyone thinks of first: I need that potato peeler.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

The menu, such as it is, is largely restricted to Lidl potato chips, yet plenty of people walk through the doors, lured by the novelty of seating that resembles shopping carts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Penelope gave a slow spin to the makeshift globe she had fashioned out of a roundish potato and a long birch twig that had been whittled to a point.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

The first minister welcomed Burnham's recent announcement that he wanted to secure better trade terms with the EU for producers of salmon, shellfish, and seed potatoes.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

Her inquiries among farmers on her family’s estate at Edgeworthstown, Ireland, showed that potatoes were the most profitable crop.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Those savings are not small potatoes: The skin substitutes cost taxpayers billions, and the figure has risen dramatically since before the pandemic.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Building on last week’s lesson, this soup starts in the oven, where carrots, sweet potatoes, scallions, miso, hot honey and a deliberately assertive amount of spice get deeply caramelized before ever meeting the stockpot.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

The cook had followed the recipe to perfection: chunks of tender stew meat simmered with onions, garlic, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and tomatoes, seasoned with caraway and, of course, the paprika.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

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