barley

¹ American  

[bahr-lee] / ˈbɑr li /

noun

1. a widely distributed cereal plant belonging to the genus Hordeum, of the grass family, having awned flowers that grow in tightly bunched spikes, with three small additional spikes at each node.

2. the grain of this plant, used as food and in making beer, ale, and whiskey.

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barley ² American  

[bahr-lee] / ˈbɑr li /

noun

Scot. and North England.

• barleys
  plural

1. a truce or quarter, especially in children's games; parley.

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barley ¹ British  

/ ˈbɑːlɪ /

noun

1. any of various erect annual temperate grasses of the genus Hordeum , esp H. vulgare , that have short leaves and dense bristly flower spikes and are widely cultivated for grain and forage

2. the grain of any of these grasses, used in making beer and whisky and for soups, puddings, etc See also pearl barley

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barley ² British  

/ ˈbɑːlɪ /

1. dialect a cry for truce or respite from the rules of a game

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• barleys
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of barley¹

before 1000; Middle English; Old English bærlīc (adj.), equivalent to bær- (variant of bere barley; akin to Old Norse barr barley, Gothic barizeins made of barley, Serbo-Croatian brȁšno flour, Latin far emmer; all < European Indo-European *bHaer- spike, prickle, perhaps akin to beard ) + -līc -ly

Origin of barley²

1805–15; probably to be identified with Scots barley, burley, birlie local customary law (Compare birleyman arbiter, birleycourt neighborhood court), variant of birlaw, Medieval Latin birlawe, birelegia, birelag < Old Norse *býjarlagu, equivalent to býjar, genitive singular of býr town ( cf. bower ¹, byre) + *lagu law ¹; compare bylaw ( def. )

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Explanation

Barley is a grain that's related to the grass family and is used in many foods and drinks. Barley is used all over the world and is most commonly found in breads, breakfast cereals, soups, and stews. Barley is the fourth largest crop grown in the world. It's used to feed grazing livestock, eaten as a whole grain, milled into flour for baking, and dried to make malt, an ingredient in both beer and whisky. The Old English root of barley is bærlic, most likely from a Proto-Indo-European source that means "bristle, point, or projection."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

barley barleys

Armed with this structural information, the researchers modified TKP immune receptors so they could recognize two different fungal effectors associated with infections in wheat and barley.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

Rozel Shrestha, 12, set fire to a tiny effigy made of straw and barley, representing his missing father, at Kathmandu's Pashupati temple on the banks of the Bagmati river.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

But the federal government didn’t even recognize American single malt—whiskey made from 100% malted barley produced at one U.S. distillery—as a spirits category until 2025.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026

People appear to have shifted back toward more traditional crops such as wheat and barley during the later stages of the Late Bronze Age.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

Among those 23, barley and emmer wheat proved to be the best by many criteria.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Radiation has been used to breed high-yield barleys, leaf-spot-resistant peanuts; radioisotope tracers have shown the way to more effective use of fertilizers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some of those related beans and barleys were indeed domesticated independently in the Americas or China, far from the early site of domestication in the Fertile Crescent.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

A long series of natural hybrids of wheat, barley, and oats are also described and discussed by Rimpau, as well as artificial crosses—some very remarkable—of barleys, but they must be passed over here.

From Disease in Plants by H. Marshall Ward

The barleys are chiefly used for human food with or without rice.

From The Foundations of Japan Notes Made During Journeys Of 6,000 Miles In The Rural Districts As A Basis For A Sounder Knowledge Of The Japanese People by J.W. Robertson Scott

"However, the barleys look well; but perhaps you don't understand farming?"

From Japhet, in Search of a Father by Frederick Marryat

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Related Words

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