Po

//pəʊ// adj, adv, name, noun, slang

adj, adv, name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A peacock. obsolete
  2. 2
    A chamberpot. Australia, New-Zealand, UK, colloquial, dated

    "Ma's out, Pa's out, let's talk rude-- Pee, po, belly, bum, drawers!"

  3. 3
    The police. plural, plural-only, slang

    ""Basically it's a celebration of all the gearheads in the area," Rob told him. "Sometimes we get busted by the po, but we always find a new place to show off our rides. Enjoy this lot while we have it.""

  4. 4
    Initialism of post office. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  5. 5
    an independent agency of the federal government responsible for mail delivery (and sometimes telecommunications) between individuals and businesses in the United States wordnet
Show 8 more definitions
  1. 6
    Initialism of purchase order. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  2. 7
    a noncommissioned officer in the Navy or Coast Guard with a rank comparable to sergeant in the Army wordnet
  3. 8
    Initialism of police officer. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  4. 9
    a radioactive metallic element that is similar to tellurium and bismuth; occurs in uranium ores but can be produced by bombarding bismuth with neutrons in a nuclear reactor wordnet
  5. 10
    Initialism of probation officer. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism

    "I gotta take a whiz test to my PO / I know I failed 'cause I done smoked major weed, bro"

  6. 11
    Initialism of petty officer. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  7. 12
    Initialism of principal officer. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  8. 13
    Initialism of playoff. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Adjective
  1. 1
    Thinner; with more water added to dilute it. Singapore, colloquial, not-comparable
  2. 2
    Initialism of peroral. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, not-comparable
Adverb
  1. 1
    Initialism of per os (“by mouth, orally”). abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, not-comparable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The longest river in Italy, which flows 652 kilometers eastward to the Adriatic Sea near Venice.

Synonyms

All synonyms
atomic number 84canchamber pothpjohnp.o.

Example

More examples

"Send us your videos with your name and age to PO Box 4413."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English po (found also in pocock), from Old English pāwa, pēa (“peacock”), from Proto-Germanic *pāwô (“peacock”), from Latin pāvō. Cognate with Dutch pauw, German Pfau. See also peacock.

Etymology 2

A diminutive of pot.

Etymology 3

Clipping of police.

Etymology 4

From Hokkien 薄 (po̍h / po̍k, “weak”).

Etymology 5

From Italian Po, from Latin Padus.

Related phrases

po-facepo-facedadriatic seapetty officer

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.