Paltry or poultry?
paltry is an adjective meaning “Trashy, trivial, of little value”; poultry is a noun meaning “Domestic fowl (e.g. chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese) raised for food (meat…”. Use paltry as an adjective and poultry as a noun. They sound the same (/ˈpɒltɹi/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) poultry is about 4.8 times as common as paltry.
What is the difference between paltry and poultry?
| paltry | poultry | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | noun |
| Meaning | Trashy, trivial, of little value Of little monetary worth | Domestic fowl (e.g. chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese) raised for food (meat, eggs, or both) The meat from a domestic fowl |
| Example | This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product | a poultry farmer |
| Forms | paltrier, paltriest | poultries |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpɒltɹi/ /ˈpɔːltɹi/ /ˈpɔltɹi/ | /ˈpɒltɹi/ /ˈpəʊltɹi/ /ˈpoʊltɹi/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 3.5 times per million words |
Sources: paltry and poultry in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of paltry and poultry
paltry
- 1
Trashy, trivial, of little value
This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product
- 2
Of little monetary worth
Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?
- 3
Despicable; contemptibly unimportant
a paltry coward
poultry
- 1
Domestic fowl (e.g. chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese) raised for food (meat, eggs, or both)
a poultry farmer
- 2
The meat from a domestic fowl
the poultry counter
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, paltry or poultry?
paltry appears about once in every 1 million words; poultry 3.5 times per million words.
paltry about once in every 1 million wordspoultry 3.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).