corn
corn Lexical Profile
• noun
The sweet, starchy, yellow or white edible kernels or ears of the maize plant (Zea mays), eaten fresh off the cob or cooked as a staple culinary vegetable.
"We grilled fresh ears of sweet corn to serve alongside the summer salad."
A tall, stout annual cereal grass (Zea mays) of the family Poaceae, native to the Americas and widely cultivated in rows for its large, husked ears of grain.
"By late August, the stalks of corn in the valley stood over seven feet tall."
British The dried seeds or grains of any chief cereal crop cultivated as a staple food in a given region, especially wheat in England or oats in Scotland and Ireland.
"The stone mill ground the harvested corn into fine flour for the village bakery."
A small, localized, often painful area of thickened, hardened skin on the foot or toes, caused by repeated friction or pressure from footwear.
"Walking several miles in tight leather boots left a painful corn on his little toe."
Something considered banal, overly sentimental, trite, or mawkishly old-fashioned in style or humor.
"Critics dismissed the holiday comedy as pure corn, though audiences enjoyed its lighthearted charm."
• verb
To preserve and season meat, especially beef brisket, with coarse grains of rock salt or a seasoned brine.
"The butcher corned the beef brisket in a spiced brine for ten days before cooking it."
To form a substance such as gunpowder or salt into small, uniform grains or granules.
"Early artillery manufacturers learned to corn gunpowder to make its combustion more reliable."
Word Nuance & Usage
In North American, Australian, and New Zealand English, 'corn' specifically refers to maize (Zea mays), whereas in traditional British and Irish English it historically denotes any chief regional cereal crop, such as wheat or oats.
• Rhymes for corn
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
The agricultural sense derives from Old English 'corn' ('single seed or cereal grain'), from Proto-Germanic *kurnam, sharing an ancient Indo-European root with Latin 'granum' ('grain'). The anatomical sense of a thickened skin callus comes separately from Old French 'corne' ('horn'), from Latin 'cornu', referring to its hard, horny texture.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.