oatmeal
Americannoun
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meal made from ground or rolled oats.
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a cooked breakfast food made from this.
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a grayish-fawn color.
adjective
noun
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meal ground from oats, used for making porridge, oatcakes, etc
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a greyish-yellow colour
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( as adjective )
an oatmeal coat
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Etymology
Origin of oatmeal
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at oat, meal 2
Explanation
Use the word oatmeal for ground, crushed, or cut oats — or to mean the hot cereal made from cooking these processed oats. You might prefer your oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. Oatmeal is a porridge or hot cereal, a tasty breakfast especially in the winter months. It's also the name of the meal that you need to boil in water or milk to make a bowl of oatmeal. As well as the breakfast dish, you can make things like bread, cookies, and pancakes with oatmeal. In Scotland, oatmeal has long been the major grain, and as a result oatmeal is an ingredient in many traditional foods, from gruel and oatcakes to haggis.
Vocabulary lists containing oatmeal
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.
Sven is taking part in the main competition, where competitors must prepare traditional porridge using only three ingredients - oatmeal, water and salt.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
“It’s cranberry, oatmeal and gluten-free. Who knows if there’s any sugar in there?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
One striking example comes from 1630, when an outspoken oatmeal maker was brought before England's highest church court.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026
“Nothing compared to this,” Lanier said, reflecting on the attention to the trial, over oatmeal, toast and a Coke Zero in a downtown Los Angeles hotel the morning after the victory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
Violet and Klaus read the note as they ate their breakfast, which was a gray and lumpy oatmeal Count Olaf left for them each morning in a large pot on the stove.
From "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
