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Added 9 October 2026

corn

/ˈkɔːn/ noun

Latin root: grānum Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about corn at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region.
Maize, a grain crop of the species Zea mays.
A single seed of a food crop, especially a cereal grass crop.
He paid her the nominal fee of two corns of barley.

verb

To granulate; to form (a substance) into grains.
to corn gunpowder
To preserve using coarse salt, e.g. corned beef.
To provide (an animal) with corn (typically maize; or, in Scotland, oats) for feed.
Corn the horses.

noun

A type of callus, usually on the feet or hands.
An inflammatory disease of a horse's hoof, at the caudal part of the sole.
Skin hyperplasia with underlying fibroma between both digits of cattle.

noun

Something (e.g., acting, humour, music, or writing) which is deemed old-fashioned or intended to induce emotion.

Origin

Inherited from Middle English corn, from Old English corn, from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain; worn-down”), from *ǵerh₂- (“grow old, mature”). Cognate with Dutch koren, German Low German Koorn, German Korn, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish korn; see also Albanian grurë, Russian зерно́ (zernó), Czech zrno, Latin grānum and Lithuanian žirnis. Doublet of grain, gram, granum, and grao. The sense maize (Zea mays) is an ellipsis of Indian corn that developed in 18th century North America.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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