noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
UK:/ˈpɒltɹi/
UK:/ˈpəʊltɹi/
Canada, US:/ˈpoʊltɹi/
California, Southern:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Australian:/ˈpɔltɹi/
Australian:/ˈpəʉltɹi/
homophone: paltry (some accents)
CMU ARPABET:P OW1 L T R IY0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Domestic fowl (e.g. chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese) raised for food (meat, eggs, or both).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Examples
a poultry farmer
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: bird, animal, creature, critter
2
noun
Meaning 2
The meat from a domestic fowl.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Examples
the poultry counter
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: meat, food
3
noun
Meaning 3
a domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: domestic fowl, fowl
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: gallinaceous bird, gallinacean
Narrower terms: Dorking, Plymouth Rock, Cornish, Cornish fowl, Rock Cornish, game fowl, cochin, cochin china, chicken, Gallus gallus, bantam, turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, guinea fowl, guinea, Numida meleagris
4
noun
Meaning 4
flesh of chickens or turkeys or ducks or geese raised for food
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
From Middle English pultrie, from Old French pouleterie, from poulet, diminutive of poule (“hen”), from Latin pullus (“chick”). By surface analysis, poult + -ry. For the development of Middle English /u/ to modern /oʊ/, /əʊ/ before /lt/, /ld/, /ln/, compare boult, boulder, colter/coulter, poultice, shoulder, won't.
Across languages
Translations
86 source translations are retained for this English entry.