noun
meal
MEEL
noun
1
Food prepared and eaten together, typically at a set time of day.
"We sat down for a family meal every Sunday evening."
"Skipping meals all day left him starving by dinner."
2
Coarsely ground grain, used in baking or as animal feed.
"The recipe called for a cup of cornmeal."
How to Use Meal
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishEither the food you eat at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or ground-up grain used in cooking.
Common pairings
home-cooked meal
skip a meal
three meals a day
meal plan
Word Forms
mealed past tense, mealed past tense, meals plural, meals plural, meals plural, meals singular, meals singular
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.
Test yourself on “meal”
A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage
→
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
We sat down for a family _____ every Sunday evening.
Etymology
From Old English mǣl, originally meaning "measure" or "set time" before narrowing to "time for eating" and then "the food eaten at that time".