What is the difference between granular and grain?
granular | grain | Related terms |
Consisting of, or resembling, granules or grains; as, a granular substance. Grainy. Granular limestone, crystalline limestone, or marble, having a granular structure.
* 1790, Abraham Mills, Some Strata in Ireland and Scotland,'' in ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 80
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(uncountable) The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
(uncountable) Similar seeds from any food crop, eg buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
(countable) A single seed of grain.
(countable, uncountable) The crops from which grain is harvested.
(uncountable) A linear texture of a material or surface.
(countable) A single particle of a substance.
(countable) A very small unit of weight, in England equal to 1/480 of an ounce troy, 0.0648 grams or, to be more exact, 64.79891 milligrams (0.002285714 avoirdupois ounce). A carat grain or pearl grain is 1/4 carat or 50 milligrams. The old French grain was 1/9216 livre or 53.11 milligrams, and in the mesures usuelles permitted from 1812 to 1839, with the livre redefined as 500 grams, it was 54.25 milligrams.
(countable) A former unit of gold purity, also known as carat grain , equal to "carat" (karat).
(materials) A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
A reddish dye made from the coccus insect, or kermes; hence, a red color of any tint or hue, as crimson, scarlet, etc.; sometimes used by the poets as equivalent to Tyrian purple.
* Milton
* Quoted by Coleridge, preface to Aids to Reflection
The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
(in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called
(botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
* Hayward
To feed grain to.
To make granular; to form into grains.
To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
(tanning) To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
(tanning) To soften leather.
To yield fruit.
A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.
A tine, prong, or fork.
# One of the branches of a valley or river.
# An iron fish spear or harpoon, with a number of points half-barbed inwardly.
#* 1770 : Served 5 lb of fish per man which was caught by striking with grains'' — journal of Stephen Forwood (gunner on ), 4 May 1770, quoted by Parkin (page 195).
# A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
(founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
Grain is a related term of granular.
As an adjective granular
is consisting of, or resembling, granules or grains; as, a granular substance. Grainy. Granular limestone, crystalline limestone, or marble, having a granular structure.As a noun grain is
the harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.As a verb grain is
to feed grain to.granular
English
(Granularity)Adjective
(en adjective)- This Whyn Dyke is bare at the cliffs ?everal yards in height, and is near nine feet in width. It con?i?ts of an inner part of a granular and ?omewhat porous texture...
Usage notes
A common usage error is to treat the term "granular" as having a well-defined degree from fine to coarse, as in "more granular" or "less granular". Such usage is problematic for two reasons: * The essential characteristic of being granular is that something appears to be composed of small, discrete entities as opposed to being continuous or monolithic, and this is primarily a binary distinction, not a matter of degree. * The terms "more granular" and "less granular" are ambiguous: it is not clear whether they intend to indicate finer or coarser granularity. For example, granular sugar is called granular because it is composed of relatively large grains, in contrast with powdered sugar, whose grains are so small that they are not noticeable. Thus, in reference to sugar, "more granular" refers to coarser'' granularity.Corriher, Shirley O.; "The Brownie Chronicles", published in "The Elements of Chocolate", 2007. Retrieved 6-jan-2009 http://acselementsofchocolate.typepad.com/elements_of_chocolate/ACSBrownieChronicles.html Similarly, if a photograph is grainier or "more granular", it means that the grain particles are larger (coarser) and thus more distinctly visible.Multimedia Commons Scanning; University of Southern California. Retrieved 6-Jan-2009 http://www.usc.edu/libraries/locations/leavey/tutorials/assets/scanning.pdf On the other hand, "more granular" is sometimes used in exactly the opposite way: to indicate ''finer , more plentiful grains or divisions.Foley, Mary Jo; "Microsoft to roll out more granular 'porn mode' with IE 8", ZDNet.com, 25-Aug-2008. Retrieved 6-Jan-2009 http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1550 This usage error can be avoided by referring specifically to finer'' or ''coarser granularity.Synonyms
*granulousDerived terms
* granularityReferences
* * *Merriam-Webster OnLine2008
grain
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) grain, grein, from (etyl) . Compare English corn.Noun
- We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.
- a grain of wheat
- The fields were planted with grain .
- Cut along the grain of the wood.
- a grain of sand
- a grain of salt
- all in a robe of darkest grain
- doing as the dyers do, who, having first dipped their silks in colours of less value, then give them the last tincture of crimson in grain .
- (Knight)
- brothers not united in grain
Derived terms
* against the grain * grain of saltSee also
* cerealVerb
(en verb)- (Gower)