durum

D2U1R1U1M3
UK/ˈdjuːɹəm/UK/ˈdʌ.ɹəm/

A form of durum wheat — Triticum turgidum subsp. durum, syn. Triticum durum (hard wheat), the flour of which is used to make pasta and bread.

Similar
durum wheathard wheatTriticum durumTriticum turgidummacaroni wheat
UncommonScrabble 8

Meanings

noundurum (usually uncountable, plural durums)

plural durums

  1. abbreviationattributiveellipsisoftenuncountableusuallyEllipsis of durum wheat.

    durum pasta

    4 more examples

    durum bread

    Much has been done in crossing Triticum durum Desf. and T. vulgare Vill.² in an attempt to produce common wheats that are as resistant to stem rust as are the durums.

    1933 October, Glenn S. Smith, J. Allen Clark, “Inheritance of Stem-Rust reaction and Correlation of Characters in Pentad, Nodak, and Akrona Durum-Wheat Crosses”, in Technical Bulletin, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 385, page 2

    2003 October, Commission staff, Durum and Hard Red Spring Wheat From Canada, U.S. International Trade Commission, Publication 3639, page V-5, The Minneapolis Grain Exchange stated that durum is a small volume commodity with very specific uses. The durum futures contract traded sporadically for several years, and the Exchange declared the durum futures market dormant after there were no trades and no open interest in any futures contracts.

    2012, Ruby Parker Puckett, Foodservice Manual for Health Care Institutions, Wiley (Jossey-Bass), 4th Edition, page 397, Water is added to a mixture of durum meal or flour, semolina, and farina to make dough that is forced through dies to make tubular macaroni products and cord-like spaghetti.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounwheat with hard dark-colored kernels high in gluten and used for bread and pasta; grown especially in southern Russia, North Africa, and northern central North America

Similar
durum wheathard wheatTriticum durumTriticum turgidummacaroni wheat
Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latindūrum
  2. Englishdurum

Borrowing from Latin dūrum, nominative neuter singular of dūrus (“hard”). Doublet of dour and dure.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Sounds the same

Cite this entry
APA

durum. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/durum

MLA

“durum.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/durum. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “durum,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/durum.

Source: durum on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.