grain
Other forms: grains; grained; graining
When carpenters sand a piece of wood, they "go with the grain." Grain is the texture on piece of wood, which often forms long patterns that show the direction in which the tree grew.
You may have heard someone say "there's a grain of truth to that" when referring to an outrageous story that has a tiny bit of truth to it. A grain can also be a speck or a particle — the tiniest bit of something. Don't confuse this with another definition of grain, the kind you find in your bread — wheat, oats, alfalfa, and so on. Check out all the grains in the ten-grain bread next time you're in the bakery!
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a cereal grass“wheat is a grain that is grown in Kansas”type of:cereal, cereal grassgrass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet
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dry seed-like fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian cornsynonyms: caryopsistypes:amaranthseed of amaranth plants used as a native cereal in Central and South Americabarleycorna grain of barleywheat berrya grain of wheatkernela single whole grain of a cerealryethe seed of the cereal grasscornthe dried grains or kernels or corn used as animal feed or ground for mealtype of:seeda small hard fruit
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foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grassessynonyms: cereal, food graintypes:gristgrain intended to be or that has been groundgroatsthe hulled and crushed grain of various cerealsmilletsmall seed of any of various annual cereal grasses especially Setaria italicabuckwheatgrain ground into flourwheat, wheat berrygrains of common wheat; sometimes cooked whole or cracked as cereal; usually ground into flouroatseed of the annual grass Avena sativa (spoken of primarily in the plural as `oats')ricegrains used as food either unpolished or more often polishedmalta cereal grain (usually barley) that is kiln-dried after having been germinated by soaking in water; used especially in brewing and distillinghominyhulled corn with the bran and germ removedpopcornsmall kernels of corn exploded by heatpearl barleybarley ground into small round pelletscracked wheatgrains of wheat that have been crushed into small piecesbrown riceunpolished rice retaining the yellowish-brown outer layerpaddyrice in the husk either gathered or still in the fieldwortunfermented or fermenting malttype of:
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a relatively small granular particle of a substance“a grain of sand”“a grain of sugar”types:granulea tiny grainmicrosomea tiny granule in the cytoplasm that is where protein synthesis takes place under the direction of mRNAchondrulesmall granule (of e.g. chrysolite) found in some meteoric rocksplastidany of various small particles in the cytoplasm of the cells of plants and some animals containing pigments or starch or oil or protein
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the smallest possible unit of anything
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the physical composition of something (especially with respect to the size and shape of the small constituents of a substance)“sand of a fine grain”“a stone of coarse grain”synonyms: texturetype of:composition, constitution, make-up, makeup, physical compositionthe way in which someone or something is composed
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form into grains
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become granularsynonyms: granulate
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thoroughly work in
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1/7000 pound; equals a troy grain or 64.799 milligramstype of:avoirdupois unitany of the units of the avoirdupois system of weights
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a weight unit used for pearls or diamonds: 50 mg or 1/4 caratsynonyms: metric grain
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1/60 dram; equals an avoirdupois grain or 64.799 milligramstype of:troy unitany of the unit of the troy system of weightsapothecaries' unit, apothecaries' weightany weight unit used in pharmacy; an ounce is equal to 480 grains and a pound is equal to 12 ounces
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the side of leather from which the hair has been removedtype of:leatheran animal skin made smooth and flexible by removing the hair and then tanning
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the direction, texture, or pattern of fibers found in wood or leather or stone or in a woven fabric“saw the board across the grain”types:type of:texturethe characteristic appearance of a surface having a tactile quality
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paint (a surface) to make it look like stone or woodtype of:paintapply paint to; coat with paint
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Vocabulary lists containing grain
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