French fries (North America; sometimes not capitalize), chips (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and Commonwealth nations excluding Canada), fries, or French-fried potatoes (formal) are pieces of potato that have been deep-fried. A distinction is sometimes made between fries and chips, whereby North Americans refer to any pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in the UK, long thin strips of potatoes are sometimes called fries to contrast them with the thickly cut strips, which are always referred to as chips.