Is the orange one "pan" and the blue-ish one "pot"? What's the difference between "pan" and "pot"?

I would call both of those items “pots”. For me, a pan has much lower sides and is meant for frying and sautéing. A pot is deeper and is for boiling water and making sauces. Not hard and fast rules, but that’s how I use those words.

I’m going to go against the grain and say the orange one is a saucepan, which is a specific type of pot: smaller than a stockpot (which is the blue) and with a long handle. All other pans have shallow sides and long handles, whereas all other pots have high sides and short handles. So to recap: A saucepan is not a pan, it is a pot. Yes this is annoying.

Generally speaking pans are shallow while pots are deep. However the confusion comes with the “saucepan” which has a handle like a frying pan but is otherwise a pot.

Broadly speaking, a pan is shallower than a pot, i.e. it has a relatively wide base and short sides. The classic pan is the [frying pan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frying_pan), or skillet. Many American households will have sauté/saucier pans, braisers/braising pans, or roasting pans in the kitchen as well. Despite the name, most Americans would consider saucepans to be a pot—the inverse of a pan, where the sides are tall relative to the base. The archetypical pot is a saucepan (like the orange item in your first example) or a stock pot; dutch ovens (the blue item in your second example) are also common.

In the UK at least this seems to be individual preference, though pan seems to have become a lot commoner over time. In the 1980s, I grew up calling both these types of object pots. However as I got older, I found that a lot of people called them pans, especially ones with handles, and over time I started saying that more frequently so I could be sure they knew what I was talking about. But I still prefer to say say pot for any relatively deep ones such as those in the picture, while pan would refer to a flat shallow one a.k.a. frying pan It's also possible that there is some regional difference, although I've not spotted one consistently despite having lived in a lot of different parts of the UK. I'd be really interested to hear if other British people, especially middle-aged or older, have observed regional variations.

The orange one is sometimes called a "saucepan." However, even though it has the word "pan" in it, a saucepan is a type of pot, not a pan.

Those are both pots, though the orange one is called a sauce pan in general usage. Gotta love it. Pan and pot are different based on how high the sides are. Something with low sides is called a pan. Something with high sides is called a pot.

Alternative approach: pans have handles. Frying pan is shallow and has a handle. Saucepan is deep and has a handle. Crockpot is deep and doesn’t have a (saucepan-style) handle. This thing https://a.co/d/dENmdwr is a shallow pot. I don’t have anything to back this up but it’s what I think I think, if you see what I mean.

Both of these are pots. The orange one is generally what I think of I say "Pot," maybe a little on the smaller end. The blue one is a special kind of pot called a "dutch oven" which is generally used inside the oven rather than on the stove. Generally speaking, the difference between a "pot" and a "pan" is the depth of the vessel. Pots are deep while pans tend to be more shallow, or at least wider and longer than they are deep/tall. For example, this is a frying pan, intended to be used on the stove, usually with oil to pan fry something [https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=frying+pan&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fpngimg.com%2Fuploads%2Ffrying\_pan%2Ffrying\_pan\_PNG8358.png](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=frying+pan&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fpngimg.com%2Fuploads%2Ffrying_pan%2Ffrying_pan_PNG8358.png) This is an image of various baking pans, which are intended to go in the oven: [https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=baking+pan&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F91hBA6hLfuL.jpg](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=baking+pan&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F91hBA6hLfuL.jpg) On the left would be a pie pan or pie tin, the top is referred to as a cookie sheet or baking sheet, to the right of it is a muffin pan, on the bottom the smaller, but taller, one is called a bread pan or loaf pan. I don't know of a specialized name for the large one on the bottom. The loaf pan kinda breaks the general rule of "wider than it is deep" to be considered a pan, but this is just one of those many exceptions in English that you just have to learn through rote memorization or repeated exposure.

I would call both of them pots

I suppose they're both pots, really, but in the UK a lot of people would disagree, including me. My understanding was always that anything with a long handle is a pan, anything else is a pot, but some would call both pans! It's such vague and largely interchangeable terminology in UK English that I wouldn't worry about the difference. If for a specific reason you need to avoid confusion it's best to specify the type of pan/pot. Orange is a saucepan, blue is a casserole dish. American posters are likely to refer to blue as a "Dutch Oven" - DO NOT USE THIS IN THE UK. We don't call anything to do with cooking this, instead in UK English it means a space where someone has been farting a lot!

I would call them both pots. A pan should be shallower in my view. A pot is for heating liquid. A pan is for heating solid food. Although, I do have a view of pots having two small handles on each side and a pan having one longer handle, so in that sense, the orange one is a bit like a pan. In short, the blue one is absolutely a pot, while the orange one I would call a pot due its depth, but I could understand if someone might call it a pan due to the handle. Something else that might interest you is that a pot can also be a container for holding something, like a plant. Most plants inside a building are potted plants. Nobody would ever confuse that type of pot for a pan.

My personal definitions, Pot is anything with sides taller than the radius of the bottom, sides shorter than that is a pan

Pan is less specific and could be used for both, but if you're not pointing at something, people will picture a wide, shallow one.  A pot is usually about as wide as it is tall, or taller.  A skillet is a wide-low-sided pan

UK. A pan has a handle, a pot doesn't. But TIL this isn't a universal opinion...

It depends what you are cooking.

Those are both pots. Pots are deep and pans are shallow. A pot can be used for cooking soup or boiling water for pasta, a pan can be used for stir-fry or cooking a grilled cheese sandwich.

They're both pots. A pan is shallow while a pot is deep. You wouldn't (generally) sear things in a pot or boil things in a pan.

I would call both of those pots. Pan, in the context of cooking implements, means something flatter, with lower sides, maybe only an inch or two high. A pan would typically be used to sauté or sear something, whereas a pot would more commonly be used with a fairly large amount of liquid for boiling, poaching, or deep frying.

I'm British, I would say that they are both pans. I would never call anything like this a pot, although I would use the phrase "pots and pans" to refer to a collection of pans. It seems from this that some of them should be called "pots" and some "pans" but I never learnt that distinction. Although I do use specific words like "frying pan" or "saucepan".

You could call the orange one a saucepan, but they are both pots.  “Pan” without any modifiers will most likely be shallow and wide, with a long handle. Often a “frying pan”. https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-spatula-on-black-frying-pan-1277939/ https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-cooking-on-black-pan-5779887/ https://www.pexels.com/photo/little-girl-cooking-1684032/