grain
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The harvested seeds of different grass food crops eg: wheat, corn.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
graynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹeɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountable
The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
uncountable
Similar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
uncountable
A linear texture of a material or surface.
A relatively small granular particle of a substance
countable
Any of various small units of mass originally notionally based on grain's weight, variously standardized at different places and times, including
The English grain of ¹⁄₅₇₆₀ troy pound or ¹⁄₇₀₀₀ pound avoirdupois, now exactly 64.79891 mg.
verb
intransitive
To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
To yield fruit.
transitive
To feed grain to.
transitive
To make granular; to form into grains.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
Used this way, grain is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- ingrain , rarer, so it draws attention
- caryopsis , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use grain
- “Saw the board across the grain.”noun
- “Wheat is a grain that is grown in Kansas.”noun
- “There was a grain of truth in what he said.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any of several sorghums cultivated primarily for grain.
Moth whose larvae feed on grain.
A merchant who deals in food grains.
A field where grain is grown.
The intoxicating agent in fermented and distilled liquors.
West African plant bearing pungent peppery seeds.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.