teosinte

American  

[tee-uh-sin-tee, tey-] / ˌti əˈsɪn ti, ˌteɪ- /

noun

1. a tall grass, Zea mexicana, of Mexico and Central America, closely related to corn, and sometimes cultivated as a fodder plant.

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teosinte British  

/ ˌtiːəʊˈsɪntɪ /

noun

1. a tall Central American annual grass, Euchlaena mexicana, related to maize and grown for forage in the southern US

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Etymology

Origin of teosinte

1875–80; < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl teōcintli, equivalent to teō ( tl ) god + cintli dried ear of maize

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

teosinte

Corn was born here about 9,000 years ago, when Mesoamerican farmers first started to domesticate the wild grass known as teosinte.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2025

And yet experts all agree that the genus teosinte is the ancestral form of all modern varieties of maize.

From Science Daily ● May 22, 2024

For example, about 9,000 years ago, early Indigenous farmers in current-day Mexico transformed wild teosinte, a type of grass, into the single-stalked, plump corn produced around the world today.

From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2023

More recently, though, it's become clear that the genome of modern maize also contains a hefty dose of DNA from a second teosinte that grows in the highlands of central Mexico.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023

Corn began as a wild grass called teosinte.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan