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say it: grayn
grain is a noun and verb meaning "a relatively small granular particle of a substance". It carries 15 recorded senses.
foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses
the side of leather from which the hair has been removed
a weight unit used for pearls or diamonds: 50 mg or 1/4 carat
1/60 dram; equals an avoirdupois grain or 64.799 milligrams
1/7000 pound; equals a troy grain or 64.799 milligrams
dry seed-like fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn
the smallest possible unit of anything
“there was a grain of truth in what he said”
“he does not have a grain of sense”
the direction, texture, or pattern of fibers found in wood or leather or stone or in a woven fabric
“saw the board across the grain”
the physical composition of something (especially with respect to the size and shape of the small constituents of a substance)
“breadfruit has the same texture as bread”
“sand of a fine grain”
“fish with a delicate flavor and texture”
“a stone of coarse grain”
paint (a surface) to make it look like stone or wood
become granular
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for grain come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.