poet
/ˈpəʊ.ɪt/noun
poet is a noun meaning “A person who writes poems” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-O-E-T and has 2 syllables, and it appears 16 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of poet is poets.
What does poet mean?
noun
- 1
A person who writes poems.
- 2
A person with a creative or romantic imagination.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce poet?
- UK /ˈpəʊ.ɪt/
- UK /ˈpəʊ.ət/
- UK /ˈpɔː.ɪt/
Poet has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-poet.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of poet
- poets plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is poet?
Poet appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Poet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense person who writes poems:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | poète, poétesse |
| German | Dichter, Dichterin, Poet, Poetin |
| Portuguese | poeta, poetisa |
| Spanish | poeta, poetisa, lirófono |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does poet come from?
From Middle English poete, from Old French poete, from Latin poēta (“poet, author”), from Ancient Greek ποιητής (poiētḗs, “creator, maker, author, poet”), from ποιέω (poiéō, “to make, compose”). Displaced native Old English sċop and lēoþwyrhta (literally, "leedwright" or "poem-writer"). Doublet of piyyut.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).