barley

This grain is primarily recognized for its versatility in agriculture and industry, serving as a staple food source and a critical raw material for the alcohol industry. It carries a rustic, agricultural connotation, often associated with traditional farming and the historical development of brewing. As a mass noun referring to the crop or the grain in bulk, it is uncountable. To refer to individual grains, one must use a partitive construction such as a grain of barley.