Barleycorn

//ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A grain of barley.

    "The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour."

  2. 2
    a grain of barley wordnet
  3. 3
    The length of such a grain; a unit of length of approximately one third (or sometimes one quarter) of an inch or eight millimetres, still used as a basis for shoe sizes. obsolete

    "This trip to Italy has actually enlarged the diameter of my head thirteen barleycorns!"

  4. 4
    A small groove between two moldings.

Synonyms

All synonyms
barleybarley

Example

More examples

"The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour."

Etymology

From barley + corn.

Related phrases

barleycorn sight

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.