Cereals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of cultivated grasses that produce edible seeds, commonly utilized in various cuisines around the world
2. Plants cultivated primarily for their edible grains used as staple foods worldwide
3. Types of grass grown for their seeds, which serve as important food sources

Etymology: "Cereals" is the plural of "cereal," and the goddess behind the name is Ceres, the Roman deity of agriculture. Her name is traced to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "grow," the same root that also gave Latin "crescere" (the source of "crescent") and "sincerus" (the source of "sincere"). The Romans built an adjective, "Cerealis," meaning "of or relating to Ceres," and it was that adjective that passed into French as "céréale," meaning "having to do with cereal" crops. English borrowed the word from French, and the adjective sense gradually became a noun for the grasses whose seeds were gathered as food. The plural form "cereals" refers to those grain crops collectively, such as wheat, barley, and oats. The English word thus keeps a link to a divine name: every bowl of breakfast grain carries the Roman goddess of harvest in its etymology.

Synonyms: grains, breakfast foods, oats, rye, barley