What does pone mean?
Pone is an uncommon American word for corn bread, particularly a simple cornmeal cake. It is associated especially with traditional food in the southern and midwestern United States, where it may be served with meals or used in dishes containing the corn cakes. Elsewhere, and in most contemporary English, cornbread is the normal term. Pone also has a separate, very specialized use as a verb in golf: to putt, or strike the ball toward the hole. The word has an unusual history because it entered American English from a Powhatan term through colonial Virginia. Although it can still provide a regional flavor when describing traditional food, it would sound marked in general conversation, so a speaker might use it knowingly, for local color, or when discussing regional food traditions.
A cake or loaf of corn bread, especially one made simply from cornmeal.
"The meal included collard greens, beans, and a square of pone."
Regional American English; cornbread is the more common general term.
To putt a golf ball toward the hole.
"She studied the slope before she poned the ball."
A rare, specialized British term used in golf.
The plural is rarely needed because the word itself is uncommon.
"The bakery sells several varieties of pones."
Pone is a distinctly American form of cornbread that entered English from a Powhatan word during the colonial period.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does pone come from?
Pone entered English in colonial Virginia from a Powhatan term for apples. Its English meaning eventually became associated with a cake of cornmeal, yielding the modern regional sense of corn bread. The separate golfing verb is a later development in specialized British usage.
Related word forms
How pone is actually used
The noun is uncommon and regional in American English; most speakers use the more widely understood term cornbread. The golf verb is specialized British usage and is rare even in golfing contexts.