barley
1 Americannoun
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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.
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the grain of this plant, used as food and in making beer, ale, and whiskey.
noun
noun
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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
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the grain of any of these grasses, used in making beer and whisky and for soups, puddings, etc See also pearl barley
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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. )
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."
Vocabulary lists containing barley
When the Emperor Was Divine
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Katt Loves Dogg
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The Beekeeper of Aleppo
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"They're the best of us," said Laverty, who won best screenplay at Cannes for Ken Loach's "I, Daniel Blake" and "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".
From Barron's • May 12, 2026
“Peace” is one of the central terms on the SPD’s election posters, on which Scholz and European election top candidate Katarina Barley can be seen together.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 27, 2024
Harvard is the first university to be served a subpoena by the Education and the Workforce Committee since it was established in 1867, according to Nick Barley, a committee spokesman.
From New York Times • Mar. 5, 2024
Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate.
From Science Daily • Dec. 27, 2023
I made a glass of Robinson’s Barley Water and made one for Mum too.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
