rye
/ɹaɪ/
rye noun: a grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder. Also the ellipsis of rye bread.
Noun
rye (countable and uncountable, plural ryes)
- A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
- They bought a sack of rye and a sack of wheat with the intent to try their hand at milling and baking.
- Sing a ſong of ſixpence, a bag full of rye.1795, Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The Nursery Parnassus, Stockton: R. Christopher, page 28
- The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
- This field will be planted to rye next spring.
- A drink (serving) of rye whiskey.
- I'll have a rye, neat, please.
- It concerns the gnomelike quality of the average American at a party. I have been to many parties where staid American business men have been transformed by a few ryes or bourbons into unpredictable gremlins out for adventure.1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 17
- Caraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
- Ryegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
- A disease of hawks.
- And if it [vndeꝛ the peꝛch] be grene ſhe engenderith the Ry. The condicion of this euell is this, it wil ariſe in the hede and make the hede to ſwell, ⁊ the iyen all glaymous, and dyrke, and bot it haue helpe: it will downe in to the legges, and maake the legges to rancle, and if it goo fro the...1486, Juliana Berners, Book of Saint Albans
- Of all the diseases that belongs to these Hawkes, there bee onely three that they bee most subiect vnto, which is the Rye, the Crampe, and the Craye.1618, Symon Latham, Latham's Falconry
- A young man.
- The Rye is my uncle, Hans Breitmann, Mr. Leland, whom all the Romanies know. His gipsy lore was great; […]1893, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, To Gipsyland, page 2
Proper noun capitalized: Rye
Rye
- A small town and civil parish in Rother district, East Sussex, England (OS grid ref TQ9220).
- A hamlet in Odiham parish, Hart district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU7750).
- A river in North Yorkshire, England, that flows through Ryedale to join the Derwent.
- A commune in Jura department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
- An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Gila County, Arizona.
- A census-designated place in Cleveland County, Arkansas.
- A small statutory town in Pueblo County, Colorado.
- An unincorporated community in Manatee County, Florida.
- A ghost town in Adair County, Missouri.
- A town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
- A coastal suburban city in Westchester County, New York.
- A large town in Westchester County, New York.
Also used as
rye is also the ellipsis of rye bread.
rye is also the ellipsis of rye whiskey.
rye meaning in Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog
rye in Hindi
- the grass Secale cereale or its grains as food
- नीवारिका nīvārikā
rye in Malayalam
- the grass Secale cereale or its grains as food
- ശീമവരക് śīmavarakŭ
rye in Kannada
- ರಾಯಿ
rye in Tagalog
- the grass Secale cereale or its grains as food
- senteno
More languagesFewer languages
- rye in Arabic
- سُلْت sult, شَيْلَم šaylam, جَاوْدَار jāwdār
- rye in Malay
- rai
- rye in Indonesian
- gandum hitam
- rye in Persian
- چاودار čâvdâr
- rye in Vietnamese
- lúa mạch đen
Examples of rye in a sentence
- Maslin bread is made of rye mixed with a little wheat.
- My favourite sandwich has roast beef and Swiss on rye bread.
- Customer: A tuna sandwich, please. Waiter: Sure, hon. You want that on white, wheat, or rye?
Forms of rye
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ryes |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Reay |
Origin of rye
Inherited from Middle English rye, rie, from Old English ryġe, from Proto-West Germanic *rugi, from Proto-Germanic *rugiz. Germanic cognates include Dutch and West Frisian rogge, Low German Rogg, German Roggen, Rocken, Old Norse rugr (Danish rug, Swedish råg); non-Germanic cognates include Russian рожь (rožʹ) and Latvian rudzi.
* As an English surname, variant of Rea. * Also as an English surname, from the noun rye. * As a Norwegian surname, from several farmsteads whose name derive from Old Norse rjóðr (“forest clearing”); see the verb ryðja (“to clear”). * As a Danish surname, from the town Ry in Skanderbord. * The town in England is perhaps derived from Old English riþ (“river, stream”) whence also rith; compare ree.
Words formed from rye
Phrases with rye
- rye seeds
- rye breads
- rye flakes
- rye flours
- rye wolves
- Peckham Rye
- rye grasses
- corn rye bread
- corn rye breads
- sweet rye bread
- Jewish rye bread
- marble rye bread
5 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with rye
Questions about rye
- What does rye mean?
- Rye means a grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
- What is rye in Hindi?
- Rye in Hindi is नीवारिका (nīvārikā). See Rye meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is rye?
- Rye can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce rye?
- Rye is pronounced /ɹaɪ/.
- What is the plural of rye?
- The plural of rye is ryes.
Words near rye in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rye (page history and authors); Rye (page history and authors); rye (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rye.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rye.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rye. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.