Other forms: poets
A poet is somebody who writes verse. A young poet, the poet's own reading, a war poet.
The word carries more weight than writer: calling somebody a poet is usually a judgement as well as a job description. Poet laureate is an official appointment in Britain and America, holding for a fixed term. Poetess is obsolete and best avoided — poet covers everybody. Note poetic, meaning beautifully expressed; poetic licence, meaning the freedom to bend fact or grammar for effect; and poetry, the art itself.
1nounpoetSomebody who writes verse.
“The poet read for about twenty minutes and answered nothing.”
poet is a writer.
Greek poietes means a maker, from poiein, to make. To the Greeks a poet was a craftsman rather than a visionary, and every use of poem, poetry and poetic descends from that plain word for somebody who makes things.
Ancient Greek
ποιητής — creator, maker, author, poet
Latin
poēta — poet, author
Old French
poete
Middle English
poete
English, today
poet
Built from
From Middle English poete, from Old French poete, from Latin poēta (“poet, author”), from Ancient Greek ποιητής (“creator, maker, author, poet”), from ποιέω (“to make, compose”). Displaced native sċop and lēoþwyrhta (literally, "leedwright" or "poem-writer"). a doublet of piyyut.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA