Cereal vs. Oat — What's the Difference?

A cereal is any grass cultivated (grown) for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. The term may also refer to the resulting grain itself (specifically "cereal grain").

The oat (Avena sativa), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed.

A grass such as wheat, oats, or corn, the starchy grains of which are used as food.

An Old World cereal plant with a loose, branched cluster of florets, cultivated in cool climates and widely used for animal feed.

The grain of such a grass.

An oat stem used as a musical pipe by shepherds, especially in pastoral or bucolic poetry.

Any of several other plants or their edible seeds or fruit, such as buckwheat or certain species of amaranth.

Any of various grasses of the genus Avena, especially A. sativa, widely cultivated for their edible grains.

A food prepared from any of these plants, especially a breakfast food made from commercially processed grain.

The grain of any of these plants, used as food and fodder.

Consisting of or relating to grain or to a plant producing grain.

A musical pipe made of an oat straw.

(countable) A type of grass (such as wheat, rice or oats) cultivated for its edible grains.

(uncountable) Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa.

(uncountable) The grains of such a grass.

(countable) Any of the numerous species, varieties, or cultivars of any of several similar grain plants in genus Avena.

(uncountable) Breakfast cereal.

The seeds of the oat, a grain, harvested as a food crop.

Of or pertaining to the grasses which are cultivated for their edible seeds (as wheat, maize, rice, etc.), or to their seeds or grain.

A simple musical pipe made of oat-straw.

Any grass cultivated for its edible grain, or the grain itself; - usually in the plural.

The tiniest amount; a whit or jot.

Grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet

A well-known cereal grass (Avena sativa), and its edible grain, used as food and fodder; - commonly used in the plural and in a collective sense.

Foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses

A musical pipe made of oat straw.

A breakfast food prepared from grain

Annual grass of Europe and North Africa; grains used as food and fodder (referred to primarily in the plural: `oats')

Made of grain or relating to grain or the plants that produce it;

Seed of the annual grass Avena sativa (spoken of primarily in the plural as `oats')