MAIZE
What does "MAIZE" mean?
A cereal plant bearing large grains on cobs; corn.
Meanings
- A tall cereal grass (Zea mays) yielding grain on large cobs; known as corn in North America. Fields of maize stretched to the horizon.
- A pale yellow colour resembling ripe corn. The kitchen walls were painted a soft maize.
Did you know?
- Wild maize doesn't exist — farmers in southern Mexico bred it from a scrawny grass called teosinte about 9,000 years ago, turning a few hard kernels into the cob we know.
- The word 'maize' is a survivor of Taino, the language of the Caribbean people Columbus first met; it reached English through Spanish 'maíz'.
Word origin
From Taino 'mahiz' or 'mahís', the indigenous Caribbean name for the plant, via Spanish 'maíz'; one of the few English words taken from the Taino language.
Remember it
MAIZE rhymes with 'maze' — and a tall cornfield is exactly the kind of place to get lost in one.
A little poem
Nine thousand summers in each husk,
we peel the green to find the gold-
a grass that learned to feed the world.
tercet
Wordplay
- I planted a cornfield shaped like a labyrinth. It's a-maize-ing how many people can't find their way out.
What it teaches
Everything that feeds a civilization was once a wild thing somebody chose to tend.
Quick facts
What does MAIZE mean?
A cereal plant bearing large grains on cobs; corn.
Is MAIZE a valid word?
Yes — MAIZE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is MAIZE?
MAIZE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does MAIZE come from?
From Taino 'mahiz' or 'mahís', the indigenous Caribbean name for the plant, via Spanish 'maíz'; one of the few English words taken from the Taino language.
What can MAIZE teach us?
Everything that feeds a civilization was once a wild thing somebody chose to tend.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.