Search results
- Dictionarycorn/kɔːn/
noun
- 1. the chief cereal crop of a district, especially (in England) wheat or (in Scotland) oats: British "fields of corn" Similar
- 2. something banal or sentimental: informal "the film is pure corn"
Powered by Oxford Dictionaries
Learn the various meanings and uses of the word corn, from a cereal grain to a skin condition. See synonyms, examples, etymology, and related articles.
Corn is a word for different types of plants and seeds that are used for food or animal feed. Learn how to use corn in different contexts, such as corn as a vegetable, corn on the foot, or corn as a slang term.
Corn definition: a tall cereal plant, Zea mays, cultivated in many varieties, having a jointed, solid stem and bearing the grain, seeds, or kernels on large ears.. See examples of CORN used in a sentence.
Learn the meaning, pronunciation and usage of the word corn in different contexts. Corn can refer to a plant, a grain, a vegetable or a skin problem, depending on the variety and region.
- Overview
- Domestication and history
- Physical description
- Types of corn
- Genetically modified corn
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Corn is a tall annual cereal grass (Zea mays) that is widely grown for its large elongated ears of starchy seeds. The seeds, which are also known as corn, are used as food for humans and livestock and as a source of biofuel and can be processed into a wide range of useful chemicals.
When was corn first domesticated?
Corn was originally domesticated in Mexico by native peoples by about 9,000 years ago. They used many generations of selective breeding to transform a wild teosinte grass with small grains into the rich source of food that is modern Zea mays.
Why do corn kernels pop?
A popcorn kernel has an extremely hard hull that surrounds a mass of moist starchy endosperm (the food of the embryo). When such a kernel is heated to about 400 °F (about 200 °C), the moisture in the starch turns into steam and builds up pressure until the kernel explodes inside out into an irregular white fluffy mass about 20 to 40 times the kernel’s original size. About 25 corn varieties are suitable for popcorn.
corn, (Zea mays), cereal plant of the grass family (Poaceae) and its edible grain. The domesticated crop originated in the Americas and is one of the most widely distributed of the world’s food crops. Corn is used as livestock feed, as human food, as biofuel, and as raw material in industry.
Corn was first domesticated by native peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Modern corn is believed to have been derived from the Balsas teosinte (Zea mays parviglumis), a wild grass. Its culture had spread as far north as southern Maine by the time of European settlement of North America, and Native Americans taught European colonists...
The corn plant is a tall annual grass with a stout, erect, solid stem. The large narrow leaves have wavy margins and are spaced alternately on opposite sides of the stem. Staminate (male) flowers are borne on the tassel terminating the main axis of the stem. The pistillate (female) inflorescences, which mature to become the edible ears, are spikes ...
Commercial classifications, based mainly on kernel texture, include dent corn, flint corn, flour corn, sweet corn, and popcorn. Dent corn, primarily grown as animal feed and for food manufacturing, is characterized by a depression in the crown of the kernel caused by unequal drying of the hard and soft starch making up the kernel. Flint corn, containing little soft starch, has no depression; it is used for decoration and is eaten as hominy in the Americas. Flour corn, composed largely of soft starch, has soft, mealy, easily ground kernels and is an important source of corn flour. Sweet corn, commonly sold fresh, frozen, or canned as a vegetable, has wrinkled translucent seeds; the plant sugar is not converted to starch as in other types. Popcorn, an extreme type of flint corn characterized by small hard kernels, is devoid of soft starch, and heating causes the moisture in the cells to expand, making the kernels explode. Improvements in corn have resulted from hybridization, based on crossbreeding of superior inbred strains.
Britannica Quiz
Many industrial and feedstock varieties of corn are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) engineered for resistance to the herbicide glyphosate or to produce proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to kill specific insect pests. In addition, some strains have been genetically engineered for greater drought tolerance and to increase their nutritio...
Corn is a cereal plant and its edible grain, domesticated in the Americas and widely distributed worldwide. It has various types, such as dent, flint, flour, sweet, and popcorn, and can be used for animal feed, human food, biofuel, and industry.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Corn is a tall annual cereal grass ( Zea mays) that is widely grown for its large elongated ears of starchy seeds. The seeds, which are also known as corn, are used as food for humans and livestock and as a source of biofuel and can be processed into a wide range of useful chemicals.
Definitions of corn. noun. tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times. synonyms: Indian corn, Zea mays, maize. see more. noun. ears of corn that can be prepared and served for human food.
