Rye Meaning
/ɹaɪ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
nounThe grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
Sentence Examples
Rye was called the grain of poverty.
Americans eat lots of wheat, rye, and other grains.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The bartender poured a shot of ____ whiskey into the glass for the customer's drink.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The baker used ____ flour to make the dense, slightly sour bread popular in Scandinavia.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“Gimme a shot of rye.” The whiskey stung his throat hot and fragrant."
— 1925, John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, 2nd section, page 146:
"I bought a pint of rye at the liquor counter and carried it over to the stools and set it down on the cracked marble counter."
— 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 159:
"Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey ’n rye/Singin’, "This’ll be the day that I die.""
— 1971, “American Pie”, in American Pie, performed by Don McLean:
"It concerns the gnomelike quality of the average American at a party. I have been to many parties where staid American business men have been transformed by a few ryes or bourbons into unpredictable gremlins out for adventure."
— 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 17:
"And if it [vndeꝛ the peꝛch] be grene ſhe engenderith the Ry. The condicion of this euell is this, it wil ariſe in the hede and make the hede to ſwell, ⁊ the iyen all glaymous, and dyrke, and bot it haue helpe: it will downe in to the legges, and maake the legges to rancle, and if it goo fro the legges in to the hede a gayne, thi hawke is bot looſt."
— 1486, Juliana Berners, Book of Saint Albans:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The bartender poured a shot of ____ whiskey into the glass for the customer's drink.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The baker used ____ flour to make the dense, slightly sour bread popular in Scandinavia.