wheat

/wit/

/hwit/

/wit/

Other forms: wheats

Wheat is the grain most commonly used in things like bread, pasta, and cake. When wheat is ground, it becomes flour you can use for baking. Who wants cupcakes?

A field of wheat looks like tall, green grasses — the wheat turns golden-colored when it's ready to be harvested. More farmland is planted with wheat than any other crop, as it's a major worldwide source of carbohydrates. Some people are sensitive or allergic to the gluten in wheat, but most of us can safely eat and enjoy the many foods made from wheat. The Germanic source means "that which is white," from a root meaning "to shine."

Definitions of wheat

1. noun

   annual or biennial grass having erect flower spikes and light brown grains
   types:

   Triticum durum, Triticum turgidum, durum, durum wheat, hard wheat, macaroni wheat

   wheat with hard dark-colored kernels high in gluten and used for bread and pasta; grown especially in southern Russia, North Africa, and northern central North America

   soft wheat

   wheat with soft starch kernels used in pastry and breakfast cereals

   Triticum aestivum, common wheat

   widely cultivated in temperate regions in many varieties for its commercially important grain

   Triticum aestivum spelta, Triticum spelta, spelt

   hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed

   Triticum dicoccum, emmer, starch wheat, two-grain spelt

   hard red wheat grown especially in Russia and Germany; in United States as stock feed

   Triticum dicoccum dicoccoides, wild emmer, wild wheat

   found wild in Palestine; held to be prototype of cultivated wheat

   type of:

   cereal, cereal grass

   grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet
2. noun

   grains of common wheat; sometimes cooked whole or cracked as cereal; usually ground into flour
   synonyms: wheat berry

   types:

   bulghur, bulgur, bulgur wheat

   parched crushed wheat

   cracked wheat

   grains of wheat that have been crushed into small pieces

   type of:

   cereal, food grain, grain

   foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses
3. noun

   a variable yellow tint; dull yellow, often diluted with white
   synonyms: pale yellow, straw

   type of:

   yellow, yellowness

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