# pot calling the kettle black

Pronunciation: US say "PAHT KAW-ling thuh KET-uhl BLAK" /ˈpɑt ˈkɔliŋ ðə ˈkɛtl̩ ˈblæk/; UK/AUS say "POT KAW-ling thuh KET-uhl BLAK" /ˈpɒt ˈkɔːliŋ ðə ˈkɛtl̩ ˈblæk/

## Idiom

1. A situation in which someone criticizes another person for a fault, or accuses them of one, that the accuser shares.
   - Simple: When someone blames another person for a fault that they have too.
   - _My sister calling me messy is the pot calling the kettle black; her room is a disaster._
   - _Talk about the pot calling the kettle black: the company fined for dumping waste is now accusing its rival of polluting the river._

## Origin

There are two explanations, and some sources give only the first. In the first, the bottoms of cast-iron pots and kettles hung over a fire turn equally black, so the pot accuses the kettle of a fault it shares. In the second, less likely one, the sooty pot sees its own reflection in a clean, shiny kettle, so it accuses the kettle of a fault only the pot has.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pot-calling-the-kettle-black (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).