Meaning & use
popcorn
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Meanings
noununcountable
A snack of corn kernels heated until they burst into light, fluffy pieces, often salted or sweetened.
Grammar: No plural: a bag of popcorn.
Patterns
- a bucket of popcorn
- pop popcorn
We shared a large bucket of popcorn at the cinema.
He made popcorn on the stove.
The kitchen smelled of buttery popcorn.
nounbefore a noun
Used before another noun to describe things resembling or related to the snack.
Grammar: Works like an adjective: popcorn machine.
Patterns
- popcorn machine
- popcorn ceiling
The theater kept a popcorn machine in the lobby.
Their old house had a popcorn ceiling.
Common combinations
- bucket of popcorn
- She held a bucket of popcorn on her lap.
- microwave popcorn
- Microwave popcorn is ready in three minutes.
- butter popcorn
- Salted butter popcorn is my favorite.
- pop popcorn
- Use a heavy pot to pop popcorn.
- popcorn kernels
- Unpopped popcorn kernels sank to the bottom.
Synonyms and how they differ
- corn snack
- Corn snack is a general phrase and could include chips, so it is vaguer than popcorn.
- puffed corn
- Puffed corn is made by machine, giving a denser texture than popcorn.
Word family
Commonly confused: popcorn or corn?
popcorn vs corn
Corn is the plant or kernels in general, whereas popcorn is the snack made from a special variety.
Practice
Which sentence is correct?
Choose one answer.
Popcorn is uncountable, so it takes some, not a, many or a plural s.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “popcorn”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.