cereal

American  

[seer-ee-uhl] / ˈsɪər i əl /

noun

1. any plant of the grass family yielding an edible grain, as wheat, rye, oats, rice, or corn.

2. the grain itself.

3. some edible preparation of it, especially a breakfast food.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to grain or the plants producing it.

cereal British  

/ ˈsɪərɪəl /

noun

1. any grass that produces an edible grain, such as oat, rye, wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet

2. the grain produced by such a plant

3. any food made from this grain, esp breakfast food

4. (modifier) of or relating to any of these plants or their products

   cereal farming

---

cereal Scientific  

/ sîr′ē-əl /

1. A grass, such as corn, rice, sorghum, or wheat, whose starchy grains are used as food. Cereals are annual plants, and cereal crops must be reseeded for each growing season. Cereal grasses were domesticated during the Neolithic Period and formed the basis of early agriculture.

---

Other Word Forms

• noncereal adjective

Etymology

Origin of cereal

1590–1600; < Latin Cereālis of, pertaining to Ceres; -al ¹

Example Sentences

The maker of Cheerios cereal and Pillsbury dough on Wednesday posted a profit of $303.1 million, or 56 cents a share, for its quarter ended Feb. 22.

From The Wall Street Journal

Walking through the aisles of his grocery store in Brooklyn, New York, Alap Vora points to a box of breakfast cereal.

From BBC

Celine Imart, a cereal farmer and right-wing lawmaker from France who sponsored the plan hailed the deal as an "undeniable success".

From Barron's

Following in the footsteps of several national grocery chains, Target will stop carrying breakfast cereals containing synthetic colors by the end of May 2026.

From Salon

Inside the hardened plaque, they found microscopic remains of cereals, legumes, plant fibers, and yeast spores.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• bran
• corn
• grain
• rice
• wheat