potato

/pəˈteɪdoʊ/

/pəˈteɪtəʊ/

Other forms: potatoes

The potato is a mighty tuber! You can find it baked, mashed, or fried, among other things, in kitchens the world over.

Potato, which comes from the Spanish word patata, originally meant "sweet potato." Potatoes have been around for quite awhile. If you'd lived in the Andes 1800 years ago, you might have been eating potatoes ever since (though you might be sick of them by now). Remember that the plural form of this starchy vegetable ends in "toes."

Definitions of potato

1. noun

   an edible tuber native to South America; a staple food of Ireland
   synonyms: Irish potato, murphy, spud, tater, white potato

   types:

   baked potato

   potato that has been cooked by baking it in an oven

   chips, french fries, french-fried potatoes, fries

   strips of potato fried in deep fat

   home fries, home-fried potatoes

   sliced pieces of potato fried in a pan until brown and crisp

   mashed potato

   potato that has been peeled and boiled and then mashed

   Uruguay potato

   similar to the common potato

   jacket potato

   a baked potato served with the jacket on

   type of:

   starches

   foodstuff rich in natural starch (especially potatoes, rice, bread)

   solanaceous vegetable

   any of several fruits of plants of the family Solanaceae; especially of the genera Solanum, Capsicum, and Lycopersicon

   root vegetable

   any of various fleshy edible underground roots or tubers
2. noun

   annual native to South America having underground stolons bearing edible starchy tubers; widely cultivated as a garden vegetable; vines are poisonous
   synonyms: Solanum tuberosum, white potato, white potato vine

   type of:

   vine

   a plant with a weak stem that derives support from climbing, twining, or creeping along a surface