Cereal vs. Grain — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman & Fiza Rafique — Updated on September 11, 2023
Cereal refers to grasses cultivated for their edible grains or to food products made from those grains, whereas grain refers to the hard, small, dry seeds harvested from various plants, including cereals.
Difference Between Cereal and Grain
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Cereal specifically refers to a category of grasses that are cultivated for their edible grains, such as wheat, rice, and corn. Grain, on the other hand, is a broader term that encompasses all hard, small, dry seeds harvested from plants, whether they are cereals or not.
In common usage, cereal often refers to breakfast foods like cornflakes or oatmeal, which are made from grains. Grain, in contrast, is the raw material used in the production of these cereals as well as in other food products.
In terms of grammatical usage, both "cereal" and "grain" can be used as countable and uncountable nouns. For example, one can say "different types of cereals" or "different types of grains."
Cereal is generally considered a subset of grains. That is, all cereals are grains, but not all grains are cereals. For example, quinoa is a grain, but it is not a cereal.
Both words have their origins in agriculture but have expanded their meanings in contemporary language. "Cereal" has become more associated with breakfast foods, while "grain" has a wider application, including its use in alcohol production, like whiskey or beer.
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Comparison Chart
Scope
Specific type of grains
All hard, dry seeds
Usage
Often a breakfast food
Raw material
Grammatical Count
Both countable and uncountable
Both countable and uncountable
Subset Relationship
Is a subset of grains
Encompasses cereals
Common Applications
Food, especially breakfast
Food, alcohol, feed
Compare with Definitions
Cereal
Cereal is a type of grass cultivated for its grain.
Rice is a cereal commonly grown in Asia.
Grain
Grain is the seed of plants.
A single grain of rice can produce a new plant.
Cereal
Cereal is often processed into various food products.
Many cereals are turned into flour.
Grain
Grain is often milled into flour.
The grain was ground to make bread.
Cereal
Cereal refers to edible grains like wheat or rice.
Cereal crops include corn and barley.
Grain
Grain refers to a small, hard, dry seed.
A grain of sand is tiny but solid.
Cereal
Cereal can be a prepared breakfast food.
I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast.
Grain
Grain can be used for human or animal consumption.
The grain was stored for winter feed.
Cereal
Cereal can refer to the grain part of the plant.
The cereal was harvested in the fall.
Grain
Grain is used in the production of alcohol.
Barley grain is essential for brewing beer.
Cereal
A cereal is any grass cultivated (grown) for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. The term may also refer to the resulting grain itself (specifically "cereal grain").
Grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry seed - with or without an attached hull or fruit layer - harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant.
Cereal
A grass such as wheat, oats, or corn, the starchy grains of which are used as food.
Grain
Wheat or any other cultivated cereal used as food.
Cereal
The grain of such a grass.
Grain
A single fruit or seed of a cereal
A few grains of corn
Cereal
Any of several other plants or their edible seeds or fruit, such as buckwheat or certain species of amaranth.
Grain
The smallest unit of weight in the troy and avoirdupois systems, equal to 1/5760 of a pound troy and 1/7000 of a pound avoirdupois (approximately 0.0648 gram).
Cereal
A food prepared from any of these plants, especially a breakfast food made from commercially processed grain.
Grain
The longitudinal arrangement or pattern of fibres in wood, paper, etc.
He scored along the grain of the table with the knife
Cereal
Consisting of or relating to grain or to a plant producing grain.
Grain
A person's character or natural tendency.
Cereal
(countable) A type of grass (such as wheat, rice or oats) cultivated for its edible grains.
Grain
Kermes or cochineal, or dye made from either of these.
Cereal
(uncountable) The grains of such a grass.
Grain
Give a rough surface or texture to
Her fingers were grained with chalk dust
Cereal
(uncountable) Breakfast cereal.
Would you like some cereal?
Which cereal would you like for breakfast?
A bowl of cereal
Grain
Paint (especially furniture or interior surfaces) in imitation of the grain of wood or marble.
Cereal
Of or pertaining to the grasses which are cultivated for their edible seeds (as wheat, maize, rice, etc.), or to their seeds or grain.
Grain
Remove hair from (a hide).
Cereal
Any grass cultivated for its edible grain, or the grain itself; - usually in the plural.
Grain
Feed (a horse) on grain.
Cereal
Grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet
Grain
A small, dry, one-seeded fruit of a cereal grass, having the fruit and the seed walls united
A single grain of wheat.
Gleaned the grains from the ground one at a time. Also called caryopsis.
Cereal
Foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses
Grain
The fruits of cereal grasses especially after having been harvested, considered as a group
The grain was stored in a silo.
Cereal
A breakfast food prepared from grain
Grain
A cereal grass
Wheat is a grain grown in Kansas.
Cereal
Made of grain or relating to grain or the plants that produce it;
A cereal beverage
Cereal grasses
Grain
Cereal grasses considered as a group
Grain is grown along the river.
Grain
A relatively small discrete particulate or crystalline mass
A grain of sand.
Grain
A small amount or the smallest amount possible
Hasn't a grain of sense.
Grain
(Aerospace) A mass of solid propellant.
Grain
Abbr. gr. A unit of weight in the US Customary System, an avoirdupois unit equal to 0.002285 ounce (0.065 gram).
Grain
The markings, pattern, or texture of the fibrous tissue in wood
Cherry wood has a fine grain.
Grain
The direction of such markings
Cut a board with the grain.
Grain
The side of a hide or piece of leather from which the hair or fur has been removed.
Grain
The pattern or markings on this side of leather.
Grain
The pattern produced, as in stone, by the arrangement of particulate constituents.
Grain
The relative size of the particles composing a substance or pattern
A coarse grain.
Grain
A painted, stamped, or printed design that imitates the pattern found in wood, leather, or stone.
Grain
The direction or texture of fibers in a woven fabric.
Grain
A state of fine crystallization.
Grain
Basic temperament or nature; disposition
It goes against my grain to ask for help.
Grain
An essential quality or characteristic
"Toughness as a virtue ... is, needless to say, fully embedded in the American grain" (Benjamin DeMott).
Grain
(Archaic) Color; tint.
Grain
To cause to form into grains; granulate.
Grain
To paint, stamp, or print with a design imitating the grain of wood, leather, or stone.
Grain
To give a granular or rough texture to.
Grain
To remove the hair or fur from (hides) in preparation for tanning.
Grain
To form grains
The corn began to grain.
Grain
(uncountable) The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.
Grain
(uncountable) Similar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
Grain
(countable) A single seed of grass food crops.
A grain of wheat
Grains of oat
Grain
The crops from which grain is harvested.
The fields were planted with grain.
Grain
(uncountable) A linear texture of a material or surface.
Cut along the grain of the wood.
He doesn't like to shave against the grain.
Grain
(countable) A single particle of a substance.
A grain of sand
A grain of salt
Grain
(countable) Any of various small units of mass originally notionally based on grain's weight, variously standardized at different places and times, including
Grain
The English grain of 5760 troy pound or 7000 pound avoirdupois, now exactly 64.79891 mg.
Grain
The metric, carat, or pearl grain of 4 carat used for measuring precious stones and pearls, now exactly 50 mg.
Grain
(historical) The French grain of 9216 livre, equivalent to 53.11 mg at metricization and equal to exactly 54.25 mg from 1812–1839 as part of the mesures usuelles.
Grain
Any of various small units of length originally notionally based on a grain's width, variously standardized at different places and times.
Grain
The carat grain of 4 carat as a measure of gold purity, creating a 96-point scale between 0% and 100% purity.
Grain
(materials) A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
Grain
(rocketry) The solid piece of fuel in an individual solid-fuel rocket engine.
Grain
A reddish dye made from the coccus insect, or kermes; hence, a red color of any tint or hue, as crimson, scarlet, etc.; sometimes used by the poets as equivalent to Tyrian purple.
Grain
The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
Grain
(in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
Grain
(botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
Grain
Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
Grain
Visual texture in processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons.
Grain
A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.
Grain
A tine, prong, or fork.
Grain
One of the branches of a valley or river.
Grain
An iron fish spear or harpoon, with a number of points half-barbed inwardly.
Grain
A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
Grain
(founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
Grain
To feed grain to.
Grain
(transitive) To make granular; to form into grains.
Grain
(intransitive) To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
Grain
To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
Grain
(tanning) To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
Grain
(tanning) To soften leather.
Grain
To yield fruit.
Grain
See Groan.
Grain
To paint in imitation of the grain of wood, marble, etc.
Grain
To form (powder, sugar, etc.) into grains.
Grain
To take the hair off (skins); to soften and raise the grain of (leather, etc.).
Grain
To yield fruit.
Grain
To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
Grain
A single small hard seed; a kernel, especially of those plants, like wheat, whose seeds are used for food.
Grain
The fruit of certain grasses which furnish the chief food of man, as corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc., or the plants themselves; - used collectively.
Storehouses crammed with grain.
Grain
Any small, hard particle, as of sand, sugar, salt, etc.; hence, any minute portion or particle; as, a grain of gunpowder, of pollen, of starch, of sense, of wit, etc.
I . . . with a grain of manhood well resolved.
Grain
The unit of the English system of weights; - so called because considered equal to the average of grains taken from the middle of the ears of wheat. 7,000 grains constitute the pound avoirdupois, and 5,760 grains the pound troy. A grain is equal to .0648 gram. See Gram.
Grain
A reddish dye made from the coccus insect, or kermes; hence, a red color of any tint or hue, as crimson, scarlet, etc.; sometimes used by the poets as equivalent to Tyrian purple.
All in a robe of darkest grain.
Doing as the dyers do, who, having first dipped their silks in colors of less value, then give' them the last tincture of crimson in grain.
Grain
The composite particles of any substance; that arrangement of the particles of any body which determines its comparative roughness or hardness; texture; as, marble, sugar, sandstone, etc., of fine grain.
Hard box, and linden of a softer grain.
Grain
The direction, arrangement, or appearance of the fibers in wood, or of the strata in stone, slate, etc.
Knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,Infect the sound pine and divert his grainTortive and errant from his course of growth.
Grain
The fiber which forms the substance of wood or of any fibrous material.
Grain
The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
Grain
The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
Grain
Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
Brothers . . . not united in grain.
Grain
A sort of spice, the grain of paradise.
He cheweth grain and licorice,To smellen sweet.
The red roses flush up in her cheeks . . . Likce crimson dyed in grain.
Grain
A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.
Grain
A tine, prong, or fork.
Grain
A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
Grain
A thin piece of metal, used in a mold to steady a core.
Grain
A small hard particle;
A grain of sand
Grain
Foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses
Grain
Used for pearls or diamonds: 50 mg or 1/4 carat
Grain
1/60 dram; equals an avoirdupois grain or 64.799 milligrams
Grain
1/7000 pound; equals a troy grain or 64.799 milligrams
Grain
Dry seedlike fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn
Grain
The direction or texture of fibers found in wood or leather or stone or in a woven fabric;
Saw the board across the grain
Grain
Thoroughly work in;
His hands were grained with dirt
Grain
Paint (a surface) to make it look like stone or wood
Grain
Form into grains
Grain
Become granular
Common Curiosities
What is Cereal?
Cereal refers to a category of grasses cultivated for their edible grains or to processed foods made from these grains.
What is Grain?
Grain refers to hard, small, dry seeds harvested from various plants, including cereals.
Can Grain Refer to Non-Cereal Seeds?
Yes, grain can refer to seeds from plants that are not cereals, like quinoa.
Is Cereal a Countable Noun?
Cereal can be both countable and uncountable depending on the context.
Is Cereal a Type of Grain?
Yes, cereal is a specific type of grain.
Is Cereal a Breakfast Food?
The term "cereal" often refers to processed breakfast foods made from grains.
What Can Grain Be Used For?
Grain can be used for human food, animal feed, and alcohol production.
Is Every Cereal a Grain?
Yes, every cereal is a type of grain.
How Are Cereals and Grains Harvested?
Cereals and grains are usually harvested using specialized machinery.
Is Grain a Countable Noun?
Grain can be both countable and uncountable depending on the context.
Are Cereals and Grains the Same?
No, cereals are a subset of grains.
Can Cereal Be Made From Different Types of Grains?
Yes, breakfast cereals can be made from a variety of grains like wheat, corn, or oats.
Is Every Grain a Cereal?
No, not all grains are cereals. For example, quinoa is a grain but not a cereal.
Can Grain Be Used in Non-Food Applications?
Yes, grains like corn are sometimes used in industrial applications, such as biofuels.
Do Cereals and Grains Have Different Nutritional Profiles?
Yes, different cereals and grains have varying nutritional profiles.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
