pole

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəʊl/, [pʰɒʊɫ]
  • (doll–dole merger) IPA^(key): /pɒl/, [pʰɒɫ]
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /poʊl/, [pʰoʊɫ]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pəʉl/, [pʰəʉɫ], [pʰɐʉɫ]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /pɐʉl/, [pʰɐʉɫ]
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /pol/, [pʰoɫ]
• Rhymes: -əʊl
• Homophones: Pole, poll (one pronunciation or with the doll–dole merger)

From Middle English pole, pal, from Old English pāl (“a pole, stake, post; a kind of hoe or spade”), from Proto-West Germanic *pāl (“pole”), from Latin pālus (“stake, pale, prop, stay”), perhaps from Old Latin *paxlos, from Proto-Italic *pākslos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to nail, fasten”). Doublet of peel, pale, and palus.

pole (plural poles)

1. Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.

2. A construction by which an animal is harnessed to a carriage.

   Synonyms: carriage pole, beam, shaft, drawbar

   Meronyms: pole-guard, pole-hook, pole-hound, pole-pad, pole-pin, pole-pin-strap, pole-plate, pole-ring, pole-screen, pole-socket, pole-stop, pole-strap

3. (fishing) A type of basic fishing rod.
4. A long sports implement used for pole-vaulting; now made of glassfiber or carbon fiber, formerly also metal, bamboo and wood have been used.
5. (slang, spotting) A telescope used to identify birds, aeroplanes or wildlife.
6. (historical) A unit of length, equal to a rod (¹⁄₄ chain or 5+¹⁄₂ yards).
7. (motor racing) A pole position.
8. (US, African-American Vernacular, slang) A rifle.
9. (vulgar, slang) A penis.

• See also Thesaurus:stick
• (unit of length): rod

pole (third-person singular simple present poles, present participle poling, simple past and past participle poled)

1. To propel by pushing with poles, to push with a pole.

   Huck Finn poled that raft southward down the Mississippi because going northward against the current was too much work.

2. To identify something quite precisely using a telescope.

   He poled off the serial of the Gulfstream to confirm its identity.

3. (transitive) To furnish with poles for support.

   to pole beans or hops

4. (transitive) To convey on poles.

   to pole hay into a barn

5. (transitive) To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.
6. (transitive, baseball) To strike (the ball) very hard.
   • 2007, Tony Silvia, Baseball Over the Air:

     Long had poled the ball into the lower deck in right center.

7. (transitive, metallurgy) To treat (copper) by blowing natural gas or other reducing agent through the molten oxide, burning off the oxygen.

   to pole copper

From Middle French pole, pôle, from Latin polus, from Ancient Greek πόλος (pólos, “axis of rotation”).

pole (plural poles)

1. Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.
2. A point of magnetic focus, especially each of the two opposing such points of a magnet (designated north and south).
3. (figuratively, by extension) Any of a small set of extremes; especially, either of two extremes that are possible or available.

   In discussing alternatives to the polar extremes, Professor Nguyen mentioned two poles of a filthy floor versus a sterile surgical site.

4. (geometry) A fixed point relative to other points or lines.
6. (electricity) A contact on an electrical device (such as a battery) at which electric current enters or leaves.
7. (complex analysis) For a meromorphic function ${\displaystyle f(z)}$, any point ${\displaystyle a}$ for which ${\displaystyle f(z)\rightarrow \infty }$ as ${\displaystyle z\rightarrow a}$.

   The function ${\displaystyle f(z)={\frac {1}{z-3}}}$ has a single pole at ${\displaystyle z=3}$.

8. (obsolete) The firmament; the sky.
   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:

     And the slope sun his upward beam / Shoots against the dusky pole,

     page 211

9. Either of the states that characterize a bipolar disorder.

• (antonym(s) of “complex analysis”): zero

pole (third-person singular simple present poles, present participle poling, simple past and past participle poled)

1. (transitive) To induce piezoelectricity in (a substance) by aligning the dipoles.

• LEPO, lope, olpe, pleo-

pole

1. to work (in a garden or field)

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007) “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, number 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

From Middle High German boln.

pole

1. (Uri) to make noise, clatter, rumble

• Abegg, Emil, (1911) Die Mundart von Urseren (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik. IV.) [The Dialect of Urseren], Frauenfeld, Switzerland: Huber & Co., page 35.

Inherited from Old Czech pole, from Proto-Slavic *poľe.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpolɛ]

• Audio:

  (file)

pole n

1. (agriculture) field
2. (physics) field
3. (algebra) field

   Synonym: komutativní těleso

4. (computing) field
5. (programming) array

• “pole”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “pole”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “pole”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• IPA^(key): /ˈpole/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ole
• Hyphenation: po‧le

pole

1. in Polish

Contraction of ep ole (Modern: ei ole). ep is the old 3rd person singular form of the negative verb.

pole

1. contraction of ei ole

From Latin pollen.

pole m (plural poles)

1. pollen
2. (motor racing) pole position

• primeira posición

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

pole

1. third-person singular present indicative of pulir

pole

1. vocative singular of polus

• "pole", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “pole”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

• pol, poll, pall, paal

From Old English pāl, from Latin pālus.

• IPA^(key): /pɔːl/, /pɔl/

pole (plural poles)

1. , stake, staff

• English: pole
• Scots: pale, pall
• Yola: pulmere

• “pōl(e, n.²”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Borrowed from Swahili pole.

póle

1. sorry

   pole ma kasul!

   sorry for washing (the clothes)!

• Wellens, Ineke (2005) The Nubi Language of Uganda: an Arabic Creole in Africa, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, →ISBN

• poľe (alternative writing)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pȍľe.

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈpolɛ/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈpolɛ/

pole n

1. field (land area; wide open space)

   polem / na poli ― outside

   přěs pole přějěti/jězditi ― to have sex

2. plain
3. battlefield, battleground

   polem / v poli ležěti ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• Czech: pole

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “pole”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pȍľe. First attested in 1250.

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /pɔlʲɛ/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /pɔlʲɛ/

pole n (related adjective polny)

1. field (arable land)
   • 1930 [c. 1455], “Ex”, in Ludwik Bernacki, editor, Biblia królowej Zofii (Biblia szaroszpatacka)‎^[1], 9, 25:

     Zbyl gest grad we wszey szemy egipskyey wszitko, czsosz bilo na polyech (in agris)

     [Zbił jest grad we wszej ziemi ejipskiej wszytko, csoż było na polech (in agris)]

   • 1962 [c. 1420], Stanisław Urbańczyk, editor, Wokabularz trydencki‎^[2], number 7:

     Rus pole, inde rusticus

     [Rus pole, inde rusticus]

2. (figuratively, attested in Sieradz-Łęczyca, Greater Poland) crops from a field
   • 1415, Przecław Słota, O zachowaniu się przy stole‎^[3], Łęczyca, Poznań, line 4:

     Sgarne na szø wszytko pole, ... czszole szø na niwe swøze, tho wszytko na stole løsze

     [Zgarnie na się wszytko pole, ... csole się na niwie swięże, to wszytko na stole lęże]

3. (attested in Lesser Poland) field (open land)
   • 1930 [c. 1455], “Gen”, in Ludwik Bernacki, editor, Biblia królowej Zofii (Biblia szaroszpatacka)‎^[4], 4, 8:

     A gdisz na polu (in agro) bilasta, podnosl szø Kayn ku Ablowy

     [A gdyż na polu (in agro) byłasta, podniosł się Kain ku Ablowi]

   • 1962-1975 [1439], Stanisław Kuraś, Irena Sułkowska-Kuraś, editors, Zbiór dokumentów małopolskich [A collection of documents from Lesser Poland]‎^[5], volume II, Lesser Poland, page 311:

     Quia ex recognicione fratrum predictorum... cessit castrum Bankowecz cum villis..., item in campo al. w polyu ville Gebolthow, et utraque Cowalicow, Maloschow... de his fratri predicto iuniori cesserunt

     [Quia ex recognicione fratrum predictorum... cessit castrum Bąkowiec cum villis..., item in campo al. w polu ville Giebołtow, et utraque Kowalikow, Małoszow... de his fratri predicto iuniori cesserunt]

   • 1939 [end of the 14th century], Ryszard Ganszyniec, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Kubica, Ludwik Bernacki, editors, Psałterz florjański łacińsko-polsko-niemiecki [Sankt Florian Psalter]‎^[6], Krakow: Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, z zasiłkiem Sejmu Śląskiego [The Ossoliński National Institute: with the benefit of the Silesian Parliament], pages 131, 6:

     Naleszly gesmy gy w polech (in campis) lassa

     [Naleźli jeśmy ji w polech (in campis) lasa]

   • 1939 [end of the 14th century], Ryszard Ganszyniec, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Kubica, Ludwik Bernacki, editors, Psałterz florjański łacińsko-polsko-niemiecki [Sankt Florian Psalter]‎^[7], Krakow: Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, z zasiłkiem Sejmu Śląskiego [The Ossoliński National Institute: with the benefit of the Silesian Parliament], pages 103, 12:

     Pycz bødzye wszytek zwyerz pola (agri)

     [Pić będzie wszytek źwierz pola (agri)]

4. (attested in Masovia) campsite; battlefield
   • 1895 [1448–1450], Mikołaj Suled, edited by Franciszek Piekosiński, Tłumaczenia polskie statutów ziemskich, Kodeks Świętosławów, Warka, page 15:

     Gydączy na woyną na ląnkach any we wszi staacz mayą, yano na polyv (nisi in campo)

     [Jidący na wojnę na łąkach ani we wsi stać mają, jano na polu (nisi in campo)]

5. outside (area not in a building)
   • Middle of the 15th century, Rozmyślanie o żywocie Pana Jezusa‎^[8], page 132:

     Vyschly na polye (ad campum), nalyezly Yesvsa chodzącz y tam, y szam

     [Wyszli na pole i naleźli Jesusa chodząc i tam i sam]

6. (heraldry) background
   • 1856-1870 [1455], Antoni Zygmunt Helcel, editor, Starodawne Prawa Polskiego Pomniki‎^[9], volume VII, number 610:

     Niccolaus post awam suam est de sangwine et armis ipsorum dictis Stanczowye, proclamacio autem ipsorum Nabra, deferentes in clipeo tres lineas vlg. trzy *polye in longitudine clipei

     [Niccolaus post awam suam est de sangwine et armis ipsorum dictis Stańcowie, proclamacio autem ipsorum Nabra, deferentes in clipeo tres lineas vlg. trzy pola in longitudine clipei5]

7. (attested in Greater Poland) corruption of opole
   • 1840 [1252], Edward Raczyński, editor, Kodex dyplomatyczny Wielkiej Polski zawierający bulle papieżów, nadania książąt, przywileje miast, klasztorów i wsi, wraz z innemi podobnej treści dyplomatami tyczącemi się historyi tej prowincyi od roku 1136 do roku 1597‎^[10], Greater Poland, page 257:

     Dedimus omnimodam libertatem... a podworowe, ab pole, a bove et vacca annuali

     [Dedimus omnimodam libertatem... a podworowe, ab pole, a bove et vacca annuali]

• Polish: pole
• Silesian: pole

• Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “pole”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
• Mańczak, Witold (2017) “pole”, in Polski słownik etymologiczny (in Polish), Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, →ISBN
• Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000) “pole”, in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “pole”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔlɛ
• Syllabification: po‧le
• Homophones: Pole, Polę

Inherited from Old Polish pole. Doublet of polje.

pole n (diminutive pólko or poletko, related adjective polny)

1. (countable, agriculture) field (land for cultivation)

   Synonyms: łan, niwa

2. (countable) field (land designated for some activity)
3. field (area characterized by some activity, i.e. battle)

   Synonym: teren

4. (uncountable, Kraków, Żywiec) outside (area not inside a building)

   Synonym: dwór

5. (countable, sports) field. ground, pitch
6. (countable) field (part of some surface)
7. (countable) field (extent of someone's interest or activities)

   Synonym: dziedzina

8. (uncountable) field (freedom of action or choice) [with do (+ genitive) ‘for what’]

   Synonym: możliwość

9. (countable, physics) field (physical phenomenon (such as force, potential or fluid velocity) that pervades a region)
10. (uncountable, mathematics) field (number that expresses the area of a given geometric figure in square units)

    Synonym: powierzchnia

11. (computing) field (area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls)
12. (obsolete) background (part of an image that is not the main part)
13. (obsolete, anatomy) group of nerve cells located close to each other in the central nervous system and performing the same function
14. (obsolete, hunting) hunting ground

    Synonym: łowisko

15. (obsolete) measure of land
16. (Middle Polish, chess) field (area on a chessboard)
17. (Middle Polish) The meaning of this term is uncertain.
    • 1564, J. Mączyński, Lexicon‎^[11], page 9a:

      Fortuna anatina et anataria, Szcżeśćie ná kácze pole.

      [Fortuna anatina et anataria, Szczęście na kacze pole.]

18. (Near Masovian) strip of clothing

    Synonym: bryt

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), pole is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 40 times in scientific texts, 6 times in news, 17 times in essays, 28 times in fiction, and 17 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 108 times, making it the 581st most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.^[1]

See podle.

pole

1. (Kuyavia, Central Greater Poland) alternative form of podle (“next to, near”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

pole f

1. dative/locative singular of poła

• pole in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• pole in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “pole”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• Dorota Adamiec (25.03.2019) “POLE”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “pole”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “pole”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1908), “pole”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw, page 525
• Oskar Kolberg (1867) “pole”, in Dzieła wszystkie: Kujawy (in Polish), page 275
• Zygmunt Wasilewski (1889) “pole”, in Jagodne: wieś w powiecie łukowskim, gminie Dąbie: zarys etnograficzny (in Polish), Warsaw: M. Arct, page 245
• Oskar Kolberg (1877) “pole”, in “Rzecz o mowie ludu wielkopolskiego”, in Zbiór wiadomości do antropologii krajowéj (in Polish), volume 1, III (Materyjały etnologiczne), page 22
• Stanisław Ciszewski (1916) “pole”, in “Przyczynek do słownika gwary wielkopolskiej”, in Prace Filologiczne (in Polish), volume 8, z. 1, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 97
• Izydor Kopernicki (1875) “pole”, in “Spostrzeżenia nad właściwościami językowémi w mowie Górali Bieskidowych z dodatkiem słowniczka wyrazów góralskich”, in Rozprawy i Sprawozdania z Posiedzeń Wydziału Filologicznego Akademii Umiejętności (I), volume 3, Kraków: Akademia Umiejętności, page 374

pole (Cyrillic spelling поле)

1. vocative singular of pol

Inherited from Old Polish pole.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔ.lɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔlɛ
• Syllabification: po‧le

pole n (related adjective polny)

1. field (open earth, especially for cultivation)
2. (computing) field (area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls)
3. (Cieszyn) (singular only) outside

   Synonyms: dwōr, plac

   Idym na pole. ― I'm going outside.

• pole in dykcjonorz.eu
• pole in silling.org

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *poľe.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɔʎe]

pole n

1. field

• poľný

• Peciar, Štefan, editor (1959–1968), “pole”, in Slovník slovenského jazyka [Dictionary of the Slovak Language] (in Slovak), volumes 1–6 (A – Ž; Doplnky, Dodatky), Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo SAV, →OCLC
• “pole”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Borrowed from English pole position.

pole m (plural poles)

1. (motor racing) pole position

   Synonym: primera posición

pole

1. inflection of polir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

pole (plural poleni)

1. sorry

• samahani

-pole (declinable)

1. calm, gentle

• Nominal derivations:
  • upole (“gentleness”)

• → Nubi: pole