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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

potter.

One who makes pots and other ceramic wares.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɒtə/UK/ˈpɑtɚ/US
  1. One who makes pots and other ceramic wares.

  2. One who places flowers or other plants inside their pots.

  3. One who pots meats or other eatables.

  4. One who hawks crockery or earthenware.

  5. The red-bellied terrapin, Pseudemys rubriventris (species of turtle).

  6. The chicken turtle, Deirochelys reticularia.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English pottere, from Old English pottere (“potter”, in placenames), from Proto-West Germanic *pottārī (“pot-maker”), equivalent to pot + -er. Influenced by Anglo-Norman poter, Old French potier (“potter”). Cognate with Dutch potter (“potter”), German Low German Pötter, Pütter (“potter”). Displaced Old English synonyms lāmwyrhta (“a worker in clay, potter”, literally “loam-worker”), tiġelwyrhta (“brickmaker, potter”, literally “tile-worker”), crocwyrhta (“crocker, potter”, literally “crock-worker”).

verb/ˈpɒtə/UK/ˈpɑtɚ/US
  1. To act in a vague or unmotivated way; to fuss about with unimportant things.

    UK
  2. To move slowly or aimlessly. (Often potter about, potter around.)

    UK
  3. To poke repeatedly.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Frequentative of pote, equivalent to pote + -er. Cognate with Dutch poteren, peuteren (“to poke, pry, search”).

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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.