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

The sweet potato coconut soup hit the spot.

From The Wall Street Journal

I tend to order tartare whenever I see it, and Redbird’s version stands out: served over a crisp potato tosti with caramelized onion crema, egg jam, pickled pearl onion, and shaved marrow.

From Salon

"By rolling potatoes, you get all of the fun and the tradition but just without the animal cruelty."

From BBC

I was at Sandy June’s and sweet potato fries were coming my way.

From Literature

A farmer has warned that it is "inevitable" that the cost of potatoes in shops will increase as producers grapple to cope with the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.

From BBC

Related Words

• yam