Webster's English Dictionary

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barley

bar.ley \'ba:r-le-\ n [ME barly, fr. OE brlic of barley; akin to OE 
   bere b]arley, L far spelt : a cereal grass (genus Hordeum, esp. H. vulgare) 
   having  the flowers in dense spikes with long awns and three spikelets at 
   each joint of the rachis; also : its seed used in malt beverages and in 
   breakfast foods and stock feeds