Word.ws English Dictionary

polo

/ˈpəʊ.ləʊ/US/ˈpoʊloʊ/

polo noun: a ball game where two teams of players on horseback use long-handled mallets to propel the ball along the ground and into their opponent's goal. Also the alternative letter-case form of Polo.

Noun (1)

polo (usually uncountable, plural polos)

  1. (usually) A ball game where two teams of players on horseback use long-handled mallets to propel the ball along the ground and into their opponent's goal.
    • There were polo fields – sometimes green, sometimes brown – where in the old days, people had actually played that strange game that seems like a drunken bet about golf and horse riding.2019, Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift, Hogarth, page 227
  2. (usually) The game of ice polo, one of the ancestors of ice hockey; a similar game played on the ice, or on a prepared floor, by players wearing skates.
  3. (countable, usually) A polo shirt.
    • Then on the second floor there is the creepy boy’s section, which had little headless mannequins in premium polos ($39.50), rugby shirts ($49.50) and a precocious leather pilot jacket for $148.2007 February 22, Mike Albo, “Outfitters to Presidents, Preppies, Me”, in New York Times

Verb (1)

polo (third-person singular simple present polos, present participle poloing, simple past and past participle poloed)

  1. (intransitive) To play the game of polo.

Noun (2)

polo

  1. A Spanish gypsy dance characterized by energetic movements of the body while the feet merely shuffle or glide, with unison singing and rhythmic clapping of hands.

Noun (3)

polo (plural polos)

  1. (Philippines) A dress shirt.

Verb (2)

polo (third-person singular simple present polos, present participle poloing, simple past and past participle poloed)

  1. (intransitive) To give the cry of "polo!" in the marco polo game.

Noun (4)

polo (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of pilaf.
    • The importance of Nowruz is reflected in an elaborate sabzi polo, the herbed rice capped with a crunchy tahdig, the crust formed from lettuce, rice mixed with yogurt or lavash or another thin flatbread. On Wednesday night, I opted for sheveed polo, a simpler and quicker dill rice, but I can’t wait...2026 March 15, Genevieve Ko, “‘This Is the Best Dish I Have Ever Made From NYT Cooking’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2026
    Synonyms:
    pilaf

Interjection capitalized: Polo

  1. Shouted by a player of the game Marco Polo. Compare Marco.

Proper noun capitalized: Polo

Polo (plural Polos)

  1. A surname from Italian or Spanish

Also used as

polo is also the alternative letter-case form of Polo.

polo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

polo in Hindi

ball game
पोलो polo, चौगान caugān

polo in Tamil

போலோ

polo in Marathi

ball game
पोलो polo

polo in Urdu

ball game
پولو polo
More languagesFewer languages
polo in Bengali
পোলো pōlō
polo in Telugu
పోలో, పోలోకు
polo in Malayalam
പോളോ, പൊളോ, പോളോയിലേക്ക്
polo in Kannada
ಪೋಲೋ, ಪೊಲೋ, ಪೊಲೊ
polo in Punjabi
ਪੋਲੋ
polo in Gujarati
પોલો polo
polo in Odia
ପୋଲୋ, ପୋଲୋକୁ
polo in Sinhala
පෝලෝ pōlō
polo in Nepali
पोलो polo
polo in Arabic
صَوْلَجَان ṣawlajān, كُرَة وَ صَوْلَجَان, بُولُو būlū
polo in Persian
چوگان čowgân
polo in Thai
โปโล bpoo-loo
polo in Vietnamese
mã cầu, pô-lô
polo in Myanmar
ဂူလီသဘင် gulisa.bhang

Examples of polo in a sentence

  • He was dressed in docksiders, khaki shorts and a pink polo shirt.
  • He tucked out his polo (dress shirt) but not his undershirt.
  • The coach trains his water polo team with fervor.

All 28 example sentences with polo

Synonyms of polo

Forms of polo

Noun
pluralpolos
Verb
third-person singular presentpolos
present participlepoloing
past participlepoloed
pastpoloed
Proper noun
pluralPolos

Plural of polo: polos

Origin of polo

From Balti پولو (polo, “ball”). Cognate with Tibetan པོ་ལོ (po lo), ཕོ་ལོང (pho long), སྤོ་ལོ (spo lo, “ball”).

From Spanish, an air or popular song in Andalusia.

Unknown.

Words formed from polo

Phrases with polo

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with polo

Questions about polo

What does polo mean?
Polo means a ball game where two teams of players on horseback use long-handled mallets to propel the ball along the ground and into their opponent's goal.
What is polo in Hindi?
Polo in Hindi is पोलो (polo), चौगान (caugān). See Polo meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is polo?
Polo can be a noun, a verb, an interjection or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce polo?
Polo is pronounced /ˈpoʊloʊ/ (US).
What is the plural of polo?
The plural of polo is polos.

Words near polo in the dictionary

  1. Pollywood
  2. Polmadie
  3. Polman
  4. Polmont
  5. polnoglasie
  6. polo
  7. Polo Flat
  8. Polo kinase
  9. Polo kinases
  10. polo neck
  11. polo neck sweater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: polo (page history and authors); Polo (page history and authors); polo (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); polo (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); polo (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); polo (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); polo (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); polo (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-polo.wav.

Cite this entry: “polo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/polo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.