overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

potluck.

A meal, especially one offered to a guest, consisting of whatever food is available.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˌpɒtˈlʌk/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɑtˌlʌk/General-American/-ˌlək/General-American/ˌpɒtˈlʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. A meal, especially one offered to a guest, consisting of whatever food is available.

    also · attributive · countable · dated · uncountable
    Here are some leftover beans and meat; we can make a good potluck stew from them.
  2. Whatever is available in a particular situation.

    also · attributive · broadly · countable · uncountable
  3. A shared meal consisting of whatever guests have brought (sometimes without prior arrangement); a potlatch; also, a dish of food brought to such a meal.

    US · also · attributive · countable · uncountable
  4. The last draft or portion of an alcoholic beverage in a pot or other drinking vessel.

    also · attributive · countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From pot + luck. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sense 3 (“a shared meal consisting of whatever guests have brought”) is unlikely to have been influenced by potlatch.

verb/ˌpɒtˈlʌk/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɑtˌlʌk/General-American/-ˌlək/General-American/ˌpɒtˈlʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. To take part in a potluck, where each participant brings a meal to be shared by all.

    also · attributive · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From pot + luck. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sense 3 (“a shared meal consisting of whatever guests have brought”) is unlikely to have been influenced by potlatch.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

potluck has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

potluck studiopotluck workshello, potluck

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.