What does cornmeal mean?
Cornmeal is a staple ingredient made by grinding dried kernels of corn (maize) into a coarse flour. It is central to many traditional cuisines: American cornbread and hushpuppies, Italian polenta, and various porridges and dumplings across the Americas and Africa all depend on it. Depending on how coarsely it is ground, cornmeal lends either a tender crumb or a pleasantly gritty texture to baked goods, and it is often sprinkled on baking surfaces to keep dough from sticking. The word combines 'corn,' which in American English means maize, with 'meal,' an older English word for ground grain. Sold as white, yellow, or blue cornmeal, and sometimes stone-ground for fuller flavor, it remains one of the most widely used grain products in the world.
nounA coarse flour ground from dried corn (maize), used in cooking and baking to make foods such as cornbread, polenta, and porridge.
- Coarsely ground dried corn used as a food ingredient, especially in baking and porridges.
"She dusted the pizza peel with cornmeal so the dough would slide easily into the oven."
"The recipe calls for two cups of stone-ground cornmeal."
"In the American South, hot cornmeal mush was once a common breakfast."
Rarely used; the plural appears only when distinguishing different varieties or grinds of cornmeal.
"The bakery stocks several regional cornmeals, from fine white to coarse blue."
That gritty crunch on the bottom of a perfect pizza crust? Almost always cornmeal doing its job as edible ball bearings.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cornmeal
Cornmeal is a compound of 'corn' and 'meal,' both of Old English origin. 'Meal' (Old English 'melu') meaning ground grain descends from the Proto-Germanic root behind 'mill,' ultimately tracing to the Indo-European root '*mel-' meaning 'to grind or crush,' which also yields 'molar.' 'Corn' originally meant any small grain or seed in British English, but in American usage it came to denote maize specifically, giving cornmeal its modern sense. The compound arose naturally in North American English as maize became the continent's dominant indigenous grain crop.
How cornmeal is actually used
Uncountable in standard usage; it takes no plural in ordinary contexts. In American English it refers to a medium-to-coarse grind of dried corn, while finer grinds may be labeled corn flour. British readers should note that 'corn' here means maize, not wheat or oats.
Easily confused with cornmeal
Cornstarch is a fine, pure starch extracted from corn used as a thickener, whereas cornmeal is the whole dried kernel ground into coarse flour used for texture and structure.
In British English 'cornflour' means cornstarch, while American 'corn flour' is finely ground whole corn — both differ from the coarser grind of cornmeal.