wheat

American  

[weet, hweet] / wit, ʰwit /

noun

1. the grain of any cereal grass of the genus Triticum, especially T. aestivum, used in the form of flour for making bread, cakes, etc., and for other culinary and nutritional purposes.

2. the plant itself.

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wheat British  

/ wiːt /

noun

1. any annual or biennial grass of the genus Triticum, native to the Mediterranean region and W Asia but widely cultivated, having erect flower spikes and light brown grains

2. the grain of any of these grasses, used in making flour, pasta, etc

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Other Word Forms

• wheatless adjective

Etymology

Origin of wheat

before 900; Middle English whete, Old English hwǣte; cognate with German Weizen, Old Norse hveiti, Gothic hwaiteis; akin to white

Example Sentences

They creaked through rolling hills dotted with apple orchards stripped bare, past fields of brown earth awaiting the planting of oats and wheat.

From Literature

Mr. Llamazares’s writing is finely observational and often delicate: “My submachine-gun leaves a shadow of death on the ground like an elongated ear of wheat,” Ángel notices.

From The Wall Street Journal

Coeliac disease is caused by a reaction of the immune system to gluten – a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

From BBC

In some areas they control, rebels allow merchants to import cooking oil, rice and wheat from other neighboring countries only if cleared by the Rwandans, residents and traders say.

From The Wall Street Journal

And neither would he have the strength of his mother, who since his father's death had worked even harder, plowing the wheat fields with Star, planting and gathering the crop, taking it to the mill.

From Literature

Related Words

• cereal
• grass