flour

/ˈflaʊər/

/ˈflaʊə/

Other forms: floured; flours; flouring

Flour is a fine, powdery ingredient that's used to bake bread and cake and is made by grinding wheat or other grains. A traditional pound cake is made with a pound of flour.

You'll need flour when you bake almost anything, and while flour is usually made from wheat, you can also buy rice flour, corn flour, and may other kinds. When you sprinkle flour on the counter before kneading bread dough, you flour it. Flour comes from its homophone, flower, from the sense of "the finest or loveliest part of the meal," just as a flower is the finest part of a plant.

Definitions of flour

1. noun

   fine powdery foodstuff obtained by grinding and sifting the meal of a cereal grain
   types:

   plain flour

   flour that does not contain a raising agent

   wheat flour

   flour prepared from wheat

   soy flour, soybean flour, soybean meal

   meal made from soybeans

   semolina

   milled product of durum wheat (or other hard wheat) used in pasta

   graham, graham flour, whole meal flour, whole wheat flour

   flour made by grinding the entire wheat berry including the bran; (`whole meal flour' is British usage)

   type of:

   food product, foodstuff

   a substance that can be used or prepared for use as food
2. verb

   cover with flour
   “flour fish or meat before frying it”

   type of:

   dredge

   cover before cooking
3. verb

   convert grain into flour
   type of:

   convert

   change the nature, purpose, or function of something