maize

/meɪz/

/meɪz/

Other forms: maizes

Maize is another word for corn, the tall-growing grain that produces yellow kernels on long ears. A small farmer might grow several different types of maize.

Maize is more commonly used in Britain than in the United States to talk about corn, but most Americans recognize the word. Sweet maize is the variety that tastes the most delicious — other kinds of maize are grown as grain to feed animals. The word maize comes from the Spanish maíz, or corn, and both the word and the grain itself moved north from Central and South America into North America, where it became the continent's largest grain crop.

Definitions of maize

1. 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, corn

   types:

   field corn

   corn grown primarily for animal feed or market grain

   Zea mays rugosa, Zea saccharata, green corn, sugar corn, sweet corn, sweet corn plant

   a corn plant developed in order to have young ears that are sweet and suitable for eating

   Zea mays everta, popcorn

   corn having small ears and kernels that burst when exposed to dry heat

   Zea mays indentata, dent corn

   corn whose kernels contain both hard and soft starch and become indented at maturity

   Yankee corn, Zea mays indurata, flint corn, flint maize

   corn having kernels with a hard outer layer enclosing the soft endosperm

   Zea mays amylacea, flour corn, soft corn, squaw corn

   corn having kernels almost entirely of soft starch

   type of:

   cereal, cereal grass

   grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet
2. noun

   a strong yellow color
   synonyms: gamboge, lemon, lemon yellow

   type of:

   yellow, yellowness

   yellow color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of sunflowers or ripe lemons