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PlainSpell

pot

/pɑt/noun, verb

pot is spelled P-O-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pot means “A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pot is pots.

How many letters and syllables are in pot?

Letters3: P-O-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing25 times per million words; the 3,612th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is pot?

Pot appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th 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).

How do you pronounce pot?

  • UK /pɒt/
  • US /pɑt/

Pot has one syllable (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: En-us-pot.ogg, En-au-pot.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with pot

Also written: pot kettle black, pott.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with pot?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pot from its last stressed vowel (/ɑt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: top, opt.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of pot

  • pots plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • potting participle, present
  • potted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does pot mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes).

  2. 2

    The nominal household cooking vessel, metaphorically standing for the supply of food for a meal, or for the home.

  3. 3

    A vessel (usually earthenware) used with a seal for storing food, such as a honeypot.

  4. 4

    A vessel used for brewing or serving drinks: a coffee pot or teapot.

  5. 5

    A vessel used to hold soil for growing plants, particularly flowers: a flowerpot.

  6. 6

    A vessel used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot; (figuratively, slang) a toilet; the lavatory.

    Shit or get off the pot.

  7. 7

    A crucible: a melting pot.

  8. 8

    A pot-shaped trap used for catching lobsters or other seafood: a lobster pot.

  9. 9

    slangMarijuana.

  10. 10

    slangA simple electromechanical device used to control resistance or voltage (often to adjust sound volume) in an electronic device by rotating or sliding when manipulated by a human thumb, screwdriver, etc.

  11. 11

    Clipping of potion.

verb

  1. 1

    To put (something) into a pot.

    to pot a plant

  2. 2

    To preserve by bottling or canning.

    potted meat

  3. 3

    To package a circuit by encasing it in resin.

  4. 4

    To cause a ball to fall into a pocket.

  5. 5

    To be capable of being potted.

    The black ball doesn't pot; the red is in the way.

  6. 6

    slangTo shoot with a firearm.

  7. 7

    datedslangTo take a potshot, or haphazard shot, with a firearm.

  8. 8

    colloquialTo secure; gain; win; bag.

  9. 9

    slangTo fade volume in or out by means of a potentiometer.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Pot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpot, marmite, chaudron (vessel for cooking or storing food etc), herbe, beu, beuh (marijuana)
GermanTopf (vessel for cooking or storing food etc), Gras, Marihuana (marijuana), Einsatz (money wagered), etwas in einen Topf werfen (put (something) into a pot), lochen (cause a ball to fall into a pocket)
Portuguesepote, panela (vessel for cooking or storing food etc), maconha (marijuana), covo (trap for crabs and other seafood), pança (protruding belly), caçapa (cue sports: act of causing a ball to fall into…)
Spanisholla, marmita, pote, perol (semispherical) (vessel for cooking or storing food etc), marihuana (marijuana), meter (cause a ball to fall into a pocket)

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 pot come from?

From Middle English pot, potte, from Old English pott (“pot”) and Old French pot (“pot”) (probably from Frankish *pott); both Old English and Frankish from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot”), from Proto-Indo-European *budnós (“a type of vessel”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after pot