barleycorn
UK/ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n/
barleycorn noun: a grain of barley.
Noun
barleycorn (plural barleycorns)
- A grain of barley.
- The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour.1912, V.S. Vernon Jones, Aesop's Fables
- The length of such a grain; a unit of length of approximately one third (or sometimes one quarter) of an inch or eight millimetres, still used as a basis for shoe sizes.
- This trip to Italy has actually enlarged the diameter of my head thirteen barleycorns!1879, Geo. Alfred Townsend, Bohemian Days
- Then shewed the devil the booke unto the friar, and the friar saw it was an uncut unique of incalculable value; the height of it was half a cubit and the breadth of it the fourth part of a cubit and the thickness of it five barleycorns lacking the space of three horsehairs.1907, Various, The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.)
- A small groove between two moldings.
Forms of barleycorn
| plural | barleycorns |
|---|
Origin of barleycorn
From barley + corn.
Words formed from barleycorn
Phrases with barleycorn
Questions about barleycorn
- What does barleycorn mean?
- Barleycorn means a grain of barley.
- What part of speech is barleycorn?
- Barleycorn is a noun.
- How do you pronounce barleycorn?
- Barleycorn is pronounced /ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n/ (UK).
- What is the plural of barleycorn?
- The plural of barleycorn is barleycorns.
Words near barleycorn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: barleycorn (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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