What Does Cereal Mean?
Cereal has two main meanings.
- A breakfast food made from grain, such as corn flakes or oat rings. You eat it with milk.
- A grain plant such as wheat, rice, oats or corn. The word is also used as an adjective: a cereal crop.
I have a bowl of cereal every morning.
Wheat is an important cereal crop.
🔊 Pronunciation
SEER-ee-ul
It sounds exactly like serial. Both words are spelled differently, but they are said the same way.
🗣️ Natural Examples
I poured milk on my cereal.
There is a toy in the cereal box!
Rice and oats are both cereals.
My little brother eats chocolate cereal for breakfast.
Farmers grow cereal crops in this valley.
🛠️ How to Use It
Cereal is a very common word, and you can use it anywhere.
- For the breakfast food, it is usually uncountable: some cereal, a bowl of cereal.
- For the plants, it is countable: one cereal, many cereals.
- Before another noun, it works like an adjective: a cereal box, cereal bowl.
- Follow it with for breakfast: I eat cereal for breakfast.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- a bowl of cereal
- breakfast cereal
- a box of cereal
- cereal crops
- cereal and milk
- a cereal bar
👯 Similar and Related Words
- grain: the seed of a cereal plant, such as a grain of rice.
- porridge: a hot cereal made with oats and milk or water.
- muesli and granola: cereals made from oats, nuts and dried fruit.
- breakfast: the meal where you eat cereal. See Breakfast.
- serial: a story told in parts. It sounds the same, but it has a different meaning.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Cereal or serial? They sound the same.
❌ I ate a bowl of serial.
✅ I ate a bowl of cereal.
Don't count the breakfast food.
❌ I ate two cereals for breakfast.
✅ I ate two bowls of cereal for breakfast.
Spelling. The start is cer-, not ser-.
❌ sereal, cerial
✅ cereal
💬 In a Conversation
Mia: What is your favourite serial?
Sam: My favourite what?
Mia: The thing you eat with milk.
Sam: Cereal. A serial is a story with episodes.
Mia: I like my cereal with a serial. I watch cartoons at breakfast.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
The word comes from Ceres, the Roman goddess of farming and grain. She was linked to the Greek goddess Demeter. The Romans held a festival for her called the Cerealia.
The Latin word cerealis meant "of Ceres" or "of grain". English borrowed it through French céréale, and it first appeared in English in 1818 as an adjective meaning "to do with edible grain". Today people also use cereal for the breakfast food.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Say Ceres and cereal one after the other.
The C sounds like an S in both. Every bowl of cereal has a little goddess hiding in the name.