What does "pot" mean?
A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes).
Pot
/pɑt/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes).
- Grammar: pot is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: flowerpot, jackpot, kitty, weed.
- Useful contrasts: bowl, miss, pan.
- Usage evidence: Having hit a streak of bad luck, my fortune had gone to pot in no time.
How to use "pot"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "pot" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "pot" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "pot" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "pot" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "pot" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "flowerpot" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "pot", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes).
- 2 Marijuana. slang, uncountable
"The way we figure it, ma'am, if everybody walked around naked, smoked pot and listened to rock'n'roll, there wouldn't be any more wars!"
- 3 A 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. slang
- 4 Clipping of potion. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
- 5 metal or earthenware cooking vessel that is usually round and deep; often has a handle and lid wordnet
Show 31 more definitions
- 6 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A vessel (usually earthenware) used with a seal for storing food, such as a honeypot.
- 7 street names for marijuana wordnet
- 8 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A vessel used for brewing or serving drinks: a coffeepot or teapot.
- 9 a container in which plants are cultivated wordnet
- 10 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A vessel used to hold soil for growing plants, particularly flowers: a flowerpot.
"He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own."
- 11 a resistor with three terminals, the third being an adjustable center terminal; used to adjust voltages in radios and TV sets wordnet
- 12 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A vessel used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot; (figuratively, slang) a toilet; the lavatory. archaic
"Shit or get off the pot."
- 13 a plumbing fixture for defecation and urination wordnet
- 14 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A crucible: a melting pot.
- 15 slang for a paunch wordnet
- 16 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A pot-shaped trap used for catching lobsters or other seafood: a lobster pot. Maine
- 17 the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker) wordnet
- 18 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A pot-shaped metal or earthenware extension of a flue above the top of a chimney: a chimney pot.
- 19 the quantity contained in a pot wordnet
- 20 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A perforated cask for draining sugar.
- 21 (often followed by ‘of’) a large number or amount or extent wordnet
- 22 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; An earthen or pewter cup or mug used for drinking liquor. obsolete
""So kindly keep the vainglorious enumeration of your pots for the benefit of those village idiots who compose your particular set of boozing companions.""
- 23 Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly; A glass of beer in Australia whose size varies regionally but is typically around 10 fl oz (285 mL). Australia, Tasmania
"There are plenty of pubs and bars all over Australia (serving beer in schooners – 425ml or middies/pots ~285ml), and if you don′t fancy those you can drink in wine bars, pleasant beer gardens, or with friends at home."
- 24 Pothole, sinkhole, vertical cave.
"Rowten Pot"
- 25 A shallow hole used in certain games played with marbles. The marbles placed in it are called potsies.
- 26 Ruin or deterioration. slang, uncountable
"After his arrest, his prospects went to pot."
- 27 Any of various traditional units of volume notionally based on the capacity of a pot. historical
- 28 An iron hat with a broad brim worn as a helmet. historical
"The pot is an iron hat with broad brims: there are many under the denomination in the Tower, said to have been taken from the French..."
- 29 A pot-shaped non-conducting (usually ceramic) stand that supports an electrified rail while insulating it from the ground.
- 30 The money available to be won in a hand of poker or a round of other games of chance; (figuratively) any sum of money being used as an enticement.
"No one's interested. You need to sweeten the pot."
- 31 An allocation of money for a particular purpose.
"a pension pot"
- 32 A favorite: a heavily-backed horse. UK, slang
- 33 Clipping of potbelly (“a pot-shaped belly, a paunch”). abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang
"Fabienne: I wish I had a pot. Butch: You were lookin' in the mirror and you wish you had some pot? Fabienne: A pot. A pot belly. Pot bellies are sexy. Butch: Well you should be happy, 'cause you do. Fabienne: Shut up, Fatso! I don't have a pot! I have a bit of a tummy, like Madonna when she did "Lucky Star". It's not the same thing."
- 34 Clipping of potshot (“a haphazard shot; an easy or cheap shot”). abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang
"England were shipping penalties at an alarming rate - five in the first 15 minutes alone - and with Wilkinson missing three long-distance pots of his own in the first 20 minutes, the alarm bells began to ring for Martin Johnson's men."
- 35 A plaster cast. East-Midlands, Yorkshire
- 36 Alternative form of pott: a former size of paper, 12.5 × 15 inches. alt-of, alternative, historical
Verb
- 1 To put (something) into a pot.
"to pot a plant"
- 2 To fade volume in or out by means of a potentiometer. slang
"While the announcer is talking, the select switch on the mixing board for the microphone input is selected, and the microphone is “potted up.”"
- 3 plant in a pot wordnet
- 4 To preserve by bottling or canning.
"potted meat"
- 5 To package a circuit by encasing it in resin.
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 To cause a ball to fall into a pocket. transitive
- 7 To be capable of being potted. intransitive
"The black ball doesn't pot; the red is in the way."
- 8 To shoot with a firearm. transitive
"When hunted, it [the jaguar] takes refuge in trees, and this habit is well known to hunters, who pursue it with dogs and pot it when treed."
- 9 To take a pot shot, or haphazard shot, with a firearm. dated, intransitive
- 10 To secure; gain; win; bag. colloquial, transitive
- 11 To send someone to jail, expeditiously. British
- 12 To tipple; to drink. UK, dialectal, obsolete
"It is less labour to plough than to pot it."
- 13 To drain (e.g. sugar of the molasses) in a perforated cask. transitive
"Too much temper likewise prevents the melasses from separating from the sugar when it is potted or put into the hogshead"
- 14 To seat a person, usually a young child, on a potty or toilet, typically during toilet teaching. British, transitive
"Ideally the best Ideally the best way of tackling the problem of toilet training, is to 'pot' your child at set intervals when he is at home, even though he may no longer be a baby, thus establishing a regular routine instead of one at odd intervals."
- 15 To apply a plaster cast to a broken limb. East-Midlands
- 16 To catch (a fish, eel, etc) via a pot.
"Most Fishneck watermen oystered in winter, using the same small skiffs from which they potted crabs in summer."
- 17 To score (a drop goal). transitive
"With five minutes to go, Trevathan potted his second goal, and finally it was the fullback Taylor who scored."
Example
"Having hit a streak of bad luck, my fortune had gone to pot in no time."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "pot"?
Common synonyms include: flowerpot, jackpot, kitty, weed, abdomen, abomasum.
How do you use "pot" in a sentence?
Having hit a streak of bad luck, my fortune had gone to pot in no time.
How do you pronounce "pot"?
Pronounced /pɑt/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pot (“pot”), Dutch pot (“pot”), German Low German Pott (“pot”), German Pott (“pot”), Swedish potta (“chamber pot”), Icelandic pottur (“tub, pot”), Old Armenian պոյտն (poytn, “pot, earthen pot”). Also, Old Norse pottr (“pot, tub, basin”). The sense of ruin or deterioration was originally a general allusion to "being chopped up and tossed in a (normally fiery) pot, like a piece of meat" (i.e. to get wasted or done with (by someone)). The 'clean' slang term which was used in reference to toilet rooms and lavatories apparently derives from English chamberpots, although now usually encountered as potty in the context of children's toilet training.
Etymology 2
Possibly a shortened form of Mexican Spanish potiguaya or potaguaya (“cannabis leaves”), or potación de guaya (literally “drink of grief”), supposedly denoting a drink of wine or brandy in which marijuana buds were steeped, from pota + de + guaya (see guayar (“to lament”)).
Etymology 3
Clipping of potentiometer.
Etymology 4
Clipping of potion.