MAIZE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does maize mean? 

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

1. 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

2. a strong yellow color

  Familiarity information: MAIZE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAIZE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

corn; Indian corn; maize; Zea mays

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

cereal; cereal grass (grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet)

Meronyms (parts of "maize"):

corn; edible corn (ears of corn that can be prepared and served for human food)

corn cob; corncob (the hard cylindrical core that bears the kernels of an ear of corn)

corn stalk; cornstalk (the stalk of a corn plant)

capitulum; ear; spike (fruiting spike of a cereal plant especially corn)

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

field corn (corn grown primarily for animal feed or market grain)

green corn; sugar corn; sweet corn; sweet corn plant; Zea mays rugosa; Zea saccharata (a corn plant developed in order to have young ears that are sweet and suitable for eating)

popcorn; Zea mays everta (corn having small ears and kernels that burst when exposed to dry heat)

Holonyms ("maize" is a member of...):

genus Zea; Zea (corn)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A strong yellow color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

gamboge; lemon; lemon yellow; maize

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

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

 Context examples 

But groups to the Northeast would have been able to expand maize production into new areas as their populations grew.

(Scientists chart a baby boom in southwestern Native Americans from 500 to 1300 A.D., NSF)

A host-specific toxin from the maize pathogen Cochliobolus carbonum.

(HC-Toxin, NCI Thesaurus)

The researchers from France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United Sates modelled the dynamics of SCMV and MCMV infection within and between maize growing periods, either during the long- or short-rain growing seasons.

(Researchers model ways to control deadly maize disease, SciDev.Net)

Looking at maize, the phenomenon caused 38 per cent of production variance in northeast Brazil, 20 per cent in southwest Mexico and 15 per cent in West Africa.

(El Niño linked to widespread crop failures, SciDev.Net)

I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was mamaliga, and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call impletata.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This species is motile, sporulating and produces acetone, butanol and ethanol in fermentation systems using maize mash, molasses, and other feedstocks.

(Clostridium acetobutylicum, NCI Thesaurus)

Earlier studies by Harvard University researcher Sam Myers and colleagues showed that wheat, maize, rice, field peas and soybeans grown under high carbon dioxide conditions all had lower levels of protein and minerals.

(Planet-Warming Gases Make Some Food Less Nutritious, Study Says, Steve Baragona/VOA)

The ozone (O3) gas changes the molecular properties of the starch from the root vegetable to produce a bioplastic 30 per cent tougher than those made of the starch of potato, rice or maize, the researchers say.

(Scientists develop biodegradable plastic from cassava starch, SciDev.Net)

Tens of thousands of these have been cultivated for food at some time by some people, but at present, 103 of them produce about 90 per cent of our food worldwide, while three kinds of grain, maize, rice, and wheat, produce about 60 per cent of the total, the Independent reported.

(Nearly Half the Planet's Species Could Be Wiped Out by the End of This Century, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

DNA transposable elements include bacterial IS (insertion sequence) elements, Tn elements, the maize controlling elements Ac and Ds, Drosophila P, gypsy, and pogo elements, the human Tigger elements and the Tc and mariner elements which are found throughout the animal kingdom.

(DNA Insertion Elements, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)