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edible corn

edible corn

1.0
A type of corn grown to eat, like sweet corn cooked and eaten
  • noun
  • /ˈɛdɪbəl kɔrn/
translation icon : maíz comestible
  • I bought some fresh edible corn from the farmer's market for dinner.

Examples

  • For a healthy snack, we grilled some edible corn and added butter and salt.

  • The chef used edible corn as a key ingredient in her delicious soup.

  • My suggestion was to replace the non-edible ethanol corn with edible corn, wheat, soybeans, or whatever the farmer was growing before he started growing ethanol corn.

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Synonyms

corn
vsedible corn
  • US
522 1.0

A tall plant with large yellow seeds used for food

is specifically about varieties fit for people to prepare and eat
maize
vsedible corn
12 1.9

A tall plant that produces small yellow seeds used for food and animal feed

limits meaning to varieties fit for people, not general feed or industrial uses

How Edible

edible corn
1.0
inedible
11 4.5

Surface Forms

edible corn singular
edible corns plural

Morphology

edible + corn

The phrase 'edible corn' is fully compositional: 'edible' (suitable to be eaten) modifies 'corn' (maize), so the combined meaning 'corn suitable for human consumption' is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a common adjectival + noun pattern found across languages and will be immediately clear to a B1 learner who knows both words.

Etymology

The phrase edible corn comes from farmers and market sellers who needed to show which corn people could eat and which was only for animal feed. Putting edible before corn made a clear picture, so edible corn today simply means 'corn suitable for human consumption'.