Cereal is the grain or the breakfast food you eat with milk; serial means arranged in a series, as in a serial number or a TV serial. Remember: serial has "series" hiding in it (s-e-r-i).
The core difference
Cereal is a grain crop or breakfast food, whereas serial relates to a series or sequence.
- cereal — a grain crop, or a breakfast food made from grain: He had a bowl of cereal before school.
- serial — relating to a series, or a story released in instalments: The novel was originally published as a serial in a monthly magazine.
- serial — also a unique code identifying a product: You will need the serial number printed on the box.
How to tell them apart
These two are pronounced alike, so the confusion is almost always in spelling. Cereal traces back to Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, which neatly explains why it means wheat, rice, oats and the breakfast bowl made from them.
A handy trick is to link serial to series: both share the letters s-e-r-i. Anything that comes in a series or a run of episodes, from a serial number to a serial drama, takes that spelling. The classic slip is writing "cereal killer" or "cereal number", which turns a grim or technical phrase into breakfast.
