an edible tuber native to South America; a staple food of Ireland
"The farmers harvested their crop of potatoes, which served as the essential staple food for the Irish population that year."
annual native to South America having underground stolons bearing edible starchy tubers; widely cultivated as a garden vegetable; vines are poisonous
"The potato, an annual plant native to South America with edible starchy tubers and poisonous vines, is widely cultivated as a staple garden vegetable."
The tuber of a plant, Solanum tuberosum, eaten as a starchy vegetable, particularly in the Americas and Europe; this plant.
"After boiling the potatoes until they were soft, she mashed them into a creamy side dish for dinner."
In plain English: A potato is an edible underground vegetable that people often cook and eat as food.
"I mashed some boiled potatoes for dinner."
Usage: Use potato to refer specifically to the edible tuber or the entire plant when discussing cooking or agriculture. This word is often confused with "sweet potato," which belongs to a different species and has distinct flavor and texture profiles.
Underpowered; low-end.
"The potato computer managed to run my basic spreadsheet, but it struggled significantly when I tried to open a web browser."
The word entered English via the Spanish term patata, which was originally derived from the Taíno language. Interestingly, this borrowing refers to a sweet potato rather than the modern potato we know today.