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bran
brannounthe partly ground husk of wheat or other grain, separated from flour meal by sifting.
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Bran
Brannouna king of Britain and the brother of Manawydan and Branwen: his head was buried at London as a magical defense against invasion. He was sometimes regarded as a sea god or Christian saint.
bran
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
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Welsh Legend. a king of Britain and the brother of Manawydan and Branwen: his head was buried at London as a magical defense against invasion. He was sometimes regarded as a sea god or Christian saint.
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a male given name, form of Brandon.
noun
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husks of cereal grain separated from the flour by sifting
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food prepared from these husks
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bran
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French bran, bren, of uncertain origin
Explanation
The outside layer of a grain like wheat or rice is called bran. If you need some fiber, avoid the chocolate chip muffin and opt for the bran muffin instead. Most of wheat's nutrients are in its bran and germ, which are parts of an unprocessed cereal grain. When wheat is processed into white flour, the bran is removed. That's too bad since there are B vitamins, protein, iron, and important fatty acids in bran (all of which is stripped away when grain is milled or refined). White rice, for example, is rice with the bran and germ removed, while a grain of brown rice still contains both. In the sixteenth century, bran also meant "dandruff flakes." Yum!
Vocabulary lists containing bran
Crenshaw
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Measure for Measure
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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.
"When making tools for chemists, the user interface matters a lot, and previous tools relied on cumbersome filters and rules," says Andres M Bran, the first author of the Synthegy paper published in Matter.
From Science Daily • May 5, 2026
At 94, "Star Trek" legend William Shatner chews the scenery in a Raisin Bran ad that leans into fiber jokes, introducing himself as a character named "Will Shat."
From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026
And a regional Super Bowl commercial from Kellogg’s Raisin Bran is set to underline the importance of dietary fiber.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026
The service believes he left that morning from Poiana Brașov heading to Bran, the site of Count Dracula's castle.
From BBC • Dec. 2, 2025
I figured that I would be telling Bran about my conversation with Morris and how Morris had admitted that Branwell had seen him in the bathroom that day.
From "Silent To The Bone" by E.L. Konigsburg
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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.