Pop

How to spell pop

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pop

What does pop mean?

1. verbTo make or cause a short, sharp explosive sound, or to burst suddenly.
2. nounCommercial popular music with a wide audience appeal.
3. nounA sweet, fizzy soft drink, an informal term used in parts of Britain and North America.
4. nounAn affectionate informal word for one's father.

Pop in a sentence

• verb

  The balloon will pop if you squeeze it too hard.

• noun

  She writes catchy pop for several well known artists.

• noun

  The children asked for a can of pop with their lunch.

• noun

  Every Sunday he calls his pop to chat about the week.

• verb

  The cork began to pop as she opened the bottle.

• noun

  The radio station plays nothing but pop all afternoon.

Where does pop come from?

Language of origin: Other

Pop is an imitative or echoic word, meaning it was coined to mimic the very sound it names: the short, sharp burst made by something bursting or a cork leaving a bottle. It appears in English in the 1400s, first as a verb describing a quick explosive noise, and the spelling has stayed simple because there was never a foreign root to complicate it. Over the centuries it gathered many everyday uses, from popping in for a quick visit to a fizzy drink that pops when opened, and in the twentieth century it was clipped from 'popular' to label popular music as 'pop'. The affectionate term for a father, also spelled pop, grew separately as a familiar shortening of 'papa'. Because the word is so short and phonetically regular, it is one of the easiest words in English to spell.

How the word is built

• pop (imitative root suggesting a short, sharp burst of sound)