po

P3O1
/pəʊ/Singapore[p˭o]

noun

A peacock.

Similar
chamber potpetty officerP.O.United States Post OfficeUS Post OfficePost Officepoloniumatomic number 84
Very commonFirst used 8th–19th c.Scrabble 4

Meanings

po1

nounpo (plural pos)

plural pos

  1. obsoleteA peacock.First known use 8th–19th c.

po2

nounpo (plural pos)

plural pos

  1. AustraliaNew ZealandUKcolloquialdatedA chamberpot.First known use 19th c.

    ‘Pos’ or ‘chamber pots’ were provided under the beds.

    1988, Richard Hoggart, A Local Habitation, 1918-40, Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 67
    3 more examples

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

    1961, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, “P** P* B**** B** D*******”, in The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann

    There are always several spitoons & pos [chamber pots] about the room & a loathesome smell of consumption, which I expect I shall catch.

    1989, Leonard Woolf, edited by Frederic Spotts, Letters of Leonard Woolf, page 86

    Shaking the last few drops from off the end he looked down in surprise at the great head of steam that brimmed above the po, belatedly apprised of just how icy the October garret was.

    2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 44

    Synonyms: chamber pot

po3

nounpo pl (plural only)

alternative po'

  1. pluralplural onlyslangThe police.

    "'Bout time the po' got here," someone said loud enough for Bree to hear.

    2009, Debra Webb, Secrets in Four Corners, Toronto, Ont. […]: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 155
    2 more examples

    "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."

    2008, Megan T. White, Rounding the Finish Line, Baltimore, M.D.: PublishAmerica, →ISBN, page 209

    Now, one of the rules I had—this is another reason why certain police probably respected us dudes—when it was hot, when I saw certain po, we would shut it down. We left. I would just leave. I would give them they space and let them go.

    2018, U-God [Lamont Hawkins], Raw: My Journey Into the Wu-Tang, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, page 89

po4

adjectivepo (not comparable)

alternative poh

  1. Singaporecolloquialnot comparableThinner; with more water added to dilute it.

Po5

proper nounthe Po
  1. The longest river in Italy, which flows 652 kilometers eastward to the Adriatic Sea near Venice.

PO6

nounPO (plural POs)

plural POs

  1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of post office.
  2. abbreviationinitialismbusinessInitialism of purchase order.
  3. abbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of police officer.
  4. abbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of probation officer.

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

    1995, “I Got 5 on It”, in Operation Stackola, performed by Luniz
  5. abbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of petty officer.
  6. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of principal officer.
  7. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of playoff.
  8. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of project officer.
adverbPO (not comparable)
  1. abbreviationinitialismnot comparablemedicineInitialism of per os (“by mouth, orally”).

    Antonyms: NPO, parenterally

adjectivePO (not comparable)
  1. abbreviationinitialismnot comparablemedicineInitialism of peroral.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA chamberpot.

More synonyms by meaning

nouna noncommissioned officer in the Navy or Coast Guard with a rank comparable to sergeant in the Army

Broader

nounan independent agency of the federal government responsible for mail delivery (and sometimes telecommunications) between individuals and businesses in the United States

Similar
United States Post OfficeUS Post OfficePost Office
Broader
independent agency

nouna 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

Similar
poloniumatomic number 84
Broader
metallic elementmetal

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

po · noun

  1. Latinpāvō
  2. Proto-Germanic*pāwô“peacock”
  3. Old Englishpāwa
  4. Middle Englishpo
  5. Englishpo

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.

Full word history & related roots →

po · noun

A diminutive of pot.

Full word history & related roots →

po · adjective

  1. Hokkien薄“weak”
  2. Englishpo

From Hokkien 薄 (po̍h / po̍k, “weak”).

Full word history & related roots →

Po · proper noun

  1. LatinPadus
  2. ItalianPo
  3. EnglishPo

From Italian Po, from Latin Padus.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Ancient Greek Πάδος, Ἠριδανός
  • Πάδος (Pádos)longest river in Italy
  • Ἠριδανός (Ēridanós)longest river in Italy
Bulgarian По
  • Поlongest river in Italy
Catalan Po
  • Polongest river in Italy
Chinese Mandarin 波河
  • 波河 (Bōhé)longest river in Italy
Czech Pád
  • Pádlongest river in Italy
Esperanto Pado
  • Padolongest river in Italy
Finnish Po-joki, Po
  • Po-jokilongest river in Italy
  • Polongest river in Italy
French Pô, Pade
  • Pôlongest river in Italy
  • Padelongest river in Italy
Greek Πάδος
  • Πάδος (Pádos)longest river in Italy
Hungarian Pó
  • Pólongest river in Italy
Italian Po
  • Polongest river in Italy
Japanese ポー川
  • ポー川 (Pō-gawa)longest river in Italy
Latin Padus
  • Paduslongest river in Italy
Polish Pad
  • Padlongest river in Italy
Portuguese Pó
  • Pólongest river in Italy
Romanian Pad
  • Padlongest river in Italy
Russian По
  • Поlongest river in Italy
Slovak Pád
  • Pádlongest river in Italy
Turkish Po
  • Polongest river in Italy

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with po

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

po. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/po

MLA

“po.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/po. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “po,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/po.

Source: po on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.