hominy

H4O1M3I1N1Y4
/ˈhɒmɪni/

noun

A food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.

Similar
nixtamal
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Meanings

nounhominy (usually uncountable, plural hominies)

plural hominies

  1. uncountableusuallyA food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.

    Then his plate was put before him: hominy grits and a scrap of bacon. He wanted to cry, like a child: ‘But, Mama, it's my birthday!’

    1953, James Baldwin, “The Seventh Day”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Classics), London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN

    Synonyms: nixtamal

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.

Similar
nixtamal

Origin

First recorded in 1629. From Powhatan ("Virginia Algonquian"), though the exact source word is in question: suggestions include uskatahomen, appuminnéonash (“parched corn”), and rokohamin (“parched, ground corn”), the last yielding also the unclipped rockahominy.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian качамак
  • качамак (kačamak)a food made from hulled maize
French maïs lessivé
  • maïs lessivéa food made from hulled maize
Indonesian homini
  • hominia food made from hulled maize
Polish mamałyga
  • mamałygaa food made from hulled maize
Spanish nixtamal, nistayol
  • nixtamala food made from hulled maize
  • nistayola food made from hulled maize
  • nesquisaa food made from hulled maize
  • nishtamala food made from hulled maize
  • nistamal (Mesoamerica)a food made from hulled maize
  • nesquizaa food made from hulled maize
  • nixtayol (nishtayol)a food made from hulled maize
Tagalog lagkitan
  • lagkitana food made from hulled maize

Rhymes & wordplay

Sounds the same

harmony (non-rhotic, father–bother merger, weak vowel merger)
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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