barley
n. C / Un. a type of grain used to make bread, beer, and animal feed. You see it often in breakfast cereals or as a side dish in soups.
n. a cereal grain widely cultivated for human food and animal feed, and used in the brewing of beer. Uncountable when referring to the crop or substance in general; countable when referring to specific varieties or stalks.
We eat barley soup on cold days.
The farmer harvested the barley before the autumn rains arrived.
Ancient civilizations relied on barley as a staple crop, using it to bake flatbreads and brew early forms of alcoholic beverages.
From Middle English barly, barli, from Old English bærlīċ (“barley-like”, adjective) (later referring to barley itself and grain crops of similar appearance), from bere (“barley”) (compare Scots bere (“six-rowed barley”)), from Proto-Germanic baraz (compare Old Norse barr), from Proto-Indo-European bʰers- (“spike, prickle”). Equivalent to bere + -ly. See English brew.