cereal

[ seer-ee-uhl ]

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

/ 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

/ 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 Words From

• non·cere·al adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of cereal¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of cereal¹

C19: from Latin cereālis concerning agriculture, of Ceres ¹

Example Sentences

This cute BPA-free bowl has a space for up to 15 ounces of milk on one side, and a cup of cereal on the other.

From Popular-Science

Some of us beeline for the salty chips and others for the sugar-packed cereals.

From Nautilus

She plunged her hand into a blue box of 50 or so masks, then two more boxes, like a kid frantically scrounging through cereal boxes for a magic ring.

From ProPublica

Quaker used Anderson’s methods to make a variety of cereals and advertised it as “Food Shot From Guns.”

From Eater

Lucky Charms may not be my cereal of choice, but the whole setup seems rather nice.

From Freakonomics

Along with crowds, Cereal Killer has also drawn polarizing responses from the public and the media.

From The Daily Beast

Tosi has been using cereal milk as a flavor ever since 2007, and she says it taps into a universal “memory sensor.”

From The Daily Beast

In “Cartoons and Cereal,” he sings, “Reminisce when I had the morning appetite/ Apple Jacks, had nothing that I hit the TV Guide.”

From The Daily Beast

You can even buy containers of their Cereal Milk in select stores.

From The Daily Beast

Cereal brings back memories of lazy mornings and easy extravagance, a time when worries were few and comfort was plenty.

From The Daily Beast

It is the chief cereal, and the inhabitants say it originated in Ha-ram, China, nearly five thousand years ago.

From Project Gutenberg

Thank God today would see the end, and they could once more have the hot South Polar crisis with their cereal.

From Project Gutenberg

I also discovered a cereal very like barley, which I ground up and made into cakes.

From Project Gutenberg

She named the cereal which constituted the only crop to which these marsh lands were suitable.

From Project Gutenberg

Flour and other cereal foods are sometimes adulterated with some cheap substitutes, as bran or sawdust.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bran
• corn
• grain
• rice
• wheat