BARLEYCORN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does barleycorn mean? 

• BARLEYCORN (noun)
  The noun BARLEYCORN has 2 senses:

1. a grain of barley

2. a grain of barley

  Familiarity information: BARLEYCORN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BARLEYCORN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A grain of barley

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("barleycorn" is a kind of...):

caryopsis; grain (dry seed-like fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn)

Holonyms ("barleycorn" is a part of...):

common barley; Hordeum vulgare (grass yielding grain used for breakfast food and animal feed and in malt beverages)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A grain of barley

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

barley; barleycorn

Hypernyms ("barleycorn" is a kind of...):

cereal; food grain; grain (foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "barleycorn"):

pearl barley (barley ground into small round pellets)

Holonyms ("barleycorn" is a part of...):

common barley; Hordeum vulgare (grass yielding grain used for breakfast food and animal feed and in malt beverages)

 Context examples 

The original English grain unit based on the mass of a ripe grain barleycorn was larger the corresponding grain units of France and other European nations which were based on the weight of the smaller wheat grain.

(Grain, NCI Thesaurus)