grain.
The harvested seeds of various grass food crops, especially wheat, maize, rye, barley, and rice.
Meaning & usage
The harvested seeds of various grass food crops, especially wheat, maize, rye, barley, and rice.
We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.
Similar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
A single seed of a food crop, especially a cereal grass crop.
a grain of wheat
grains of oat
The crops from which grain is harvested.
The fields were planted with grain.
A linear texture of a material or surface.
Cut along the grain of the wood.
He doesn't like to shave against the grain.
A single particle of a substance.
a grain of sand
a grain of salt
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.
Any of various small units of mass originally notionally based on grain's weight, variously standardized at different places and times, including The metric, carat, or pearl grain of ¹⁄₄ carat used for measuring precious stones and pearls, now exactly 50 mg.
Any of various small units of mass originally notionally based on grain's weight, variously standardized at different places and times, including The French grain of ¹⁄₉₂₁₆ livre, equivalent to 53.11 mg at metricization and equal to exactly 54.25 mg from 1812–1839 as part of the mesures usuelles.
Any of various small units of length originally notionally based on a grain's width, variously standardized at different places and times.
The carat grain of ¹⁄₄ carat as a measure of gold purity, creating a 96-point scale between 0% and 100% purity.
A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
The solid piece of fuel in an individual solid-fuel rocket engine.
A reddish dye made from the coccus insect, or kermes; hence, a red color of any tint or hue, as crimson, scarlet, etc.; sometimes used by the poets as equivalent to Tyrian purple.
The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum.
A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
Visual texture in processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons.
A tiny fragment of a digital audio recording, used in granular synthesis to create new sounds or textures.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”). Doublet of corn, gram, granum, and grao.
To feed grain to.
To make granular; to form into grains.
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 remove the hair or fat from a skin.
To soften leather.
To yield fruit.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”). Doublet of corn, gram, granum, and grao.
A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant; an offshoot.
A tine, prong, or fork. One of the branches of a valley or river.
A tine, prong, or fork. An iron fish spear or harpoon, with a number of points half-barbed inwardly.
A tine, prong, or fork. A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
A tine, prong, or fork. An arm of a cross.
A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
A branch or arm of a stream, inlet, or sea.
A fork in a river valley or ravine.
The branch of a family; clan.
The groin; crotch.
The fangs of a tooth.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English grayn, from Old Norse grein (“bough, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“branch, twig, ramification”), of unknown origin. Related to English grove (“thicket”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.