poll
/pɔl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.35 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
noun
A polling place (usually as plural, polling places).
noun
A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
noun
The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
Example Sentences
- "The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria."
- "All soldiers quartered in place are to remove […] and not to return till one day after the poll is ended."
- "The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m."
- "The polls close at 8 p.m."
- "[…]the doctor, as if to hear better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped black poll."
- "And you might perceive the president and general manager, Mr. R. G. Atterbury, with his priceless polished poll, busy in the main office room dictating letters.."
Etymology
From Middle English pol, polle ("scalp, pate"), from or cognate with Middle Dutch pol, pōle, polle (“top, summit; head”), from Proto-West Germanic *poll, from Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“round object, head, top”), from Proto-Indo-European *bolno-, *bōwl- (“orb, round object, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Akin to Scots pow (“head, crown, scalp, skull”), Saterland Frisian pol (“round, full, brimming”, adjective), German Low German Polle, Poll (“round object, ball”), German Low German Poller (“head, tree-top, bulb”), Danish puld (“crown of a hat”), Swedish dialectal pull (“head”). Meaning "collection of votes" is first recorded 1625, from the notion of "counting heads".
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɔl/
- British English: /pəʊl/