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rye

Pronunciation: /ɹaɪ/

The English word “rye” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
  2. The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
  3. A drink (serving) of rye whiskey.
  4. Caraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
  5. Ryegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
  6. A disease of hawks.
  7. A young man.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English rye, rie, from Old English ryġe, from Proto-West Germanic *rugi, from Proto-Germanic *rugiz. Germanic cognates include Dutch and West Frisian rogge, Low German Rogg, German Roggen, Rocken, Old Norse rugr (Danish rug, Swedish råg); non-Germanic cognates include Russian рожь (rožʹ) and Latvian rudzi.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.