# poll

> English word · Noun · IPA /pɔl/ · frequency rank #3,969

## Definitions
1. A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
2. A formal vote held in order to ascertain the most popular choice.
3. A polling place (usually as plural, polling places)
4. The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
5. The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.
6. A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
7. The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
8. The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.

## Etymology
From Middle English pol, polle ("scalp, pate"), from or cognate with Middle Dutch pol, pōle, polle (“top, summit; head”), from Proto-West Germanic *poll, from Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“round object, head, top”), from Proto-Indo-European *bolno-, *bōwl- (“orb, round object, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”).
Akin to Scots pow (“head, crown, scalp, skull”), Saterland Frisian pol (“round, full, brimming”, adjective), German Low German Polle, Poll (“round object, ball”), German Low German Poller (“head, tree-top, bulb”), Danish puld (“crown of a hat”), Swedish dialectal pull (“head”).
Meaning "collection of votes" is first recorded 1625, from the notion of "counting heads".

## Easily confused with
- **pop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pop)
- **pot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pot)
- **pos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pos)
- **ppl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-ppl)
- **poo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-poo)
- **POW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pow)
- **POV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pov)
- **pom** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pom)
- **pox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pox)
- **pon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pon)
- **PSL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-psl)
- **post** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-post)
- **poor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-poor)
- **pull** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pull)
- **port** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-port)
- **pool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pool)
- **porn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-porn)
- **pope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pope)
- **pose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pose)
- **pour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/poll-vs-pour)

## Common misspellings (3)
`opll`, `plol`, `ppoll`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/poll