cereal - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Wheat, a cereal (1).

Borrowed from French céréale (“having to do with cereal”), from Latin Cerealis (“of or relating to Ceres”), from Ceres (“Roman goddess of agriculture”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“grow”), from which also Latin sincerus (English sincere) and Latin crēscō (“grow”) (English crescent).

cereal (countable and uncountable, plural cereals)

  1. (countable) A type of grass (such as wheat, rice or oats) cultivated for its edible grains.
  2. (uncountable) The grains of such a grass.
  3. (uncountable) Breakfast cereal.
    Would you like some cereal?
    Which cereal would you like for breakfast?
    a bowl of cereal

type of grass

grains of such a grass

cereal (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to cereal.[1]

    • 1818, H[enry] T[homas] Colebrooke, On Import of Colonial Corn, London: J[ohn] Murray, →OCLC, page 20; quoted in “Cereal (sīᵊ·r_i_ˌăl), a. and _sb._”, in James A[ugustus] H[enry] Murray [et al.], editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II (C), London: Clarendon Press, 1884–1928, →OCLC, page 230, column 1:
      Wheat .. is, of all the cereal seeds, the best adapted to the making of bread.
    • 1837, Henry Duncan, “Eleventh Week—Wednesday. The Corn-Plants.—Rice, Maize, and Millet.”, in Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons; Illustrating the Perfections of God in the Phenomena of the Year, [volume 1] (Spring), Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Son; […], →OCLC, page 333:
      Millet, the smallest of all the cereal seeds cultivated for food, grows on arid soils, where rice and maize cannot be successfully cultivated, […]
    • 1853, George Johnston, “The Natural History of the Eastern Borders”, in The Botany of the Eastern Borders, […], London: John Van Voorst, […], →OCLC, page 19:
      The river flows on, washing the base of the sandstone fossiliferous bank at Preston-bridge,—lightening up the rich valley of Preston-haugh,—lending beauty to the open demesnes of Broomhouse, and to the sylvan and cereal grounds of Blanerne; […]
    • 1864, Daniel Oliver, “_Natural Order_—Gramineæ. The Grass Family.”, in Lessons in Elementary Botany. […], London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, part II (Classification of Plants), class II (Monocotyledons), sub-class Glumiferæ, page 267:
      The species printed in small capitals are Corn-producing or Cereal Grasses, called Cereals, from Ceres, the Roman goddess of Corn.

  2. ^ “cereal, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Borrowed from Latin Cereālis (“relating to Ceres”), from Cerēs (“goddess of agriculture”).

cereal m (plural cereals)

  1. cereal (type of grass cultivated for edible grains)
    • 2008, Miquel Pujol i Palol, Les plantes cultivades. 1. Cereals, →ISBN, page 24:
      Tant a Catalunya com a Espanya la importància del cultiu dels cereals ha anat augmentant en els darrers 40 anys.
      In Catalonia as well as in Spain, the importance of cereal crops has been increasing in the past 40 years.
  2. (uncountable) cereal (the grains of such plants)
  3. (in the plural) breakfast cereal (food processed from grains and eaten with milk)

Borrowed from Latin Cereālis (“relating to Ceres”), from Cerēs (“goddess of agriculture”).

cereal m (plural cereais)

  1. cereal

Learned borrowing from Latin Cereālis (“relating to Ceres”), from Cerēs (“goddess of agriculture”). Equivalent to Ceres +‎ -eal.

cereal m (plural cereais)

  1. cereal (type of grass cultivated for edible grains)
  2. (uncountable) cereal (the grains of such plants)
  3. breakfast cereal (food processed from grains and eaten with milk)

Borrowed from Latin Cereālis (“relating to Ceres”), from Cerēs (“goddess of agriculture”).

cereal m (plural cereales)

  1. cereal (type of grass cultivated for edible grains)
  2. (uncountable) cereal (the grains of such plants)
  3. (in the plural) breakfast cereal (food processed from grains and eaten with milk)