corn

UK/ˈkɔːn//ˈkɔɹn/

corn noun: any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region.

Image: Peggy Greb; edited by Fir0002, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

corn (usually uncountable, plural corns)

(Commonwealth, usually, but not Australia or New Zealand) Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region.
- And hee ſaid, Beholde, I haue heard that there is corne in Egypt: get you downe thither and buy for vs from thence, that we may liue, and not die.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 42:2, column 2
- Among the divinities that dwelt on Mount Olympus, none was more friendly to the husbandman than Demeter, goddess of corn.1847, John Mason Neale, Stories from heathen mythology and Greek history, page 115
Synonyms:

cereal, grain
(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, usually) Maize, a grain crop of the species Zea mays.
- The planting or sowing of maize, exclusively called corn, was just accomplished on the Town Hill, when I reached it.1809, Edward Augustus Kendall, Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States
- Corn was the staff of life for many Indian people before contact, and it became the staff of life for many European colonists. Corn was higher in nutrition than most other grain crops. John Lawson, who travelled in South Carolina and into the interior Indian country in 1701, was one of the many...1998 February 18, Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, JHU Press, →ISBN, pages 51–52
Synonyms:

Indian corn
(usually) A single seed of a food crop, especially a cereal grass crop.
- He paid her the nominal fee of two corns of barley.
- Verely, verely, I ſay vnto you, Except a corne of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 12:24, column 2
Synonyms:

grain
(usually) A small, hard particle.
- The least corn of sand is not so small to the whole earth, as man is to the heaven:[…]1612–1626, Joseph Hall, “[Contemplations upon the Principal Passages in the Holy Story. Book I.] Of Man.”, in Josiah Pratt, editor, The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D....
- corns of powder1852, Thomas Antisell, Hand-book of the Useful Arts
(usually) A type of granular snow formed by repeated melting and refreezing, often in mountain spring conditions.

Synonyms:

corn snow
(Jamaica, Multicultural-London-English, slang, usually) Bullets, ammunition, and charge and discharge of firearms.
- R.I.P Scumpy ah you did say Popcaan
  And if a boy diss we clap corn.2014 June 9, Andrae Hugh Sutherland respectively Popcaan of Popcaan, “Where We Come From” (track 13), in Where We Come From
- We got spinners and dotties
  We got .40s and MACs
  We got nuff live corn
  […] See the four-door pausing
  Skengs out, everyone runnin
  But the corn just slapped and floored em
  50 shots in that mop2016 September 9, Liquez respectively Dimzy of 67, “Jump Out Gang” (track 7), in Let’s Lurk
(Jamaica, slang, usually) Money.
- You know dem have wedge while we have corn. Say Cockney say be first, my son! We just say Gwan!1984, Smiley Culture, Cockney Translator (song title)

Verb

corn (third-person singular simple present corns, present participle corning, simple past and past participle corned)

(Canada, US, transitive) To granulate; to form (a substance) into grains.
- to corn gunpowder
(Canada, US, transitive) To preserve using coarse salt, e.g. corned beef.
(Canada, US, transitive) To provide (an animal) with corn (typically maize; or, in Scotland, oats) for feed.
- Corn the horses.
(obsolete, transitive) To render intoxicated.
- ale strong enough to corn one
(Jamaica, Multicultural-London-English, slang, transitive) To shoot up with bullets as by a shotgun (corn).
- Anywhere, anytime, I'll get him, if he's in love; I'll corn his wedding
  He backed his wetter, I backed my wetter but who really held that wetting?2019 September 11, Yanko, “Next Up”, in #ACGK, 1:49

Noun (2)

corn (plural corns)

(transitive) A type of callus, usually on the feet or hands.
- Welcome Gentlemen, / Ladies that haue their toes / Vnplagu’d with Cornes, will walke about with you:[…]c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Synonyms:

clavus
(transitive) An inflammatory disease of a horse's hoof, at the caudal part of the sole.
(transitive) Skin hyperplasia with underlying fibroma between both digits of cattle.

Noun (3)

corn (uncountable)

(Canada, US, transitive) Something (e.g., acting, humour, music, or writing) which is deemed old-fashioned or intended to induce emotion.
- He had a sharp wit, true enough, but also a good, healthy mountaineer's love of pure corn, the slapstick stuff, the in-jokes that get funnier with every repetition and never amuse anybody who wasn't there.1975, Tschirlie, Backpacker
- There were lots of jokes on the show and they were pure corn, but the audience didn't mind.1986, Linda Martin, Kerry Segrave, Women in Comedy

Noun (4)

corn (uncountable)

(Internet, euphemistic, transitive) pornography; porn

Proper noun capitalized: Corn

Corn

A surname.
A town in Oklahoma.

corn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

corn in Tamil

சோளம், மக்காச் சோளம், கால் ஆணி, உப்பிலிட்டு பக்குவப்படுத்து

corn in Marathi

corn, maize: मका makā
corn, rice: धान्य dhānya

corn in Urdu

corn, maize: مکا makkā
corn: دانہ dāna

More languagesFewer languages

corn in Bengali: কড়া koṛa
corn in Telugu: మొక్కజొన్న
corn in Malayalam: ചോളം cōḷaṁ
corn in Kannada: ಕಲ್ಲೊತ್ತು, ಒತ್ತುಗಂಟು, ಧಾನ್ಯ, ದವಸ
corn in Gujarati: મકાઈ makāī
corn in Sanskrit: धान्य dhānya
corn in Nepali: मकै makai
corn in Arabic: غَلَّة ḡalla
corn in Persian: ذرت zorrat, میخچه mixče
corn in Thai: ข้าว kâao, ตาปลา dtaa-bplaa
corn in Vietnamese: ngô

Examples of corn in a sentence

They had entered upon the contest for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and needed the workers to help them to victory.1887, Karl Marx, “The Working Day”, in Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, transl., edited by Frederick [i.e., Friedrich] Engels, Capital: A...
The components of these beers, individually, are not known: one was made from corn, the other was a medicated or sweetened beer, due to the addition of honey, or system of brewing.1887, James Death, The Beer of the Bible: One of the Hitherto Unknown Leavens of Exodus. […], page 12:
I found that we had nearly a hundred bushels of corn, including wheat, maize, and barley, to add to our store.1909, Johann David Wyss (Susannah Mary Paull, translator), The Swiss Family Robinson, page 462:
Corn was the staff of life for many Indian people before contact, and it became the staff of life for many European colonists.1998 February 18, Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, JHU Press, →ISBN, pages...

All 40 example sentences with corn

Synonyms of corn

All synonyms of corn

Forms of corn

Noun
plural	corns
Verb
third-person singular present	corns
present participle	corning
past participle	corned
past	corned

Past tense of corn: corned

Plural of corn: corns

Origin of corn

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.

English cornInherited from Middle English corne, from Old French corn (modern French cor), from Latin cornū. Doublet of corno, cornu, and horn.

From corny.

Phrases with corn

157 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with corn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about corn

What does corn mean?: Corn means any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region.
What is corn in Hindi?: Corn in Hindi is मक्का (makkā). See Corn meaning in Hindi.
How do you use corn in a sentence?: They had entered upon the contest for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and needed the workers to help them to victory.
What part of speech is corn?: Corn can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce corn?: Corn is pronounced /ˈkɔːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of corn?: The plural of corn is corns.

Words near corn in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-corn.ogg.

Cite this entry: “corn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/corn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.