potato
Americannoun
plural
potatoes-
Also called white potato. Also called Irish potato,. the edible tuber of a cultivated plant, Solanum tuberosum, of the nightshade family.
-
the plant itself.
noun
-
Also called: Irish potato. white potato.
-
a solanaceous plant, Solanum tuberosum, of South America: widely cultivated for its edible tubers
-
the starchy oval tuber of this plant, which has a brown or red skin and is cooked and eaten as a vegetable
-
-
any of various similar plants, esp the sweet potato
-
slang a delicate or awkward matter
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.
“I remember my grandmother raising the chickens and the cows and the horses, and growing the greens, beans and sweet potatoes,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times
A spokesperson for the company said Tyrrells potato crisps were not affected and continued to perform strongly.
From BBC
With spuds a staple on our dinner tables, this is the time of year when early potatoes usually get planted.
From BBC
That’s not small potatoes considering “these are the three largest economies in the world and this scenario would have material ramifications for the global economy,” the strategists write.
From Barron's
This time, Mama must have been peeling potatoes when she heard Daisy yell because she still had one in her hand when she came flying out the door—scared half to death.
From Literature
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.
