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KERNEL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: kernelled , kernelling
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
Example:
the nub of the story
Synonyms:
center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("kernel" is a kind of...):
cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "kernel"):
bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)
hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)
haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)
quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)
stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A single whole grain of a cereal
Example:
a kernel of corn
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("kernel" is a kind of...):
caryopsis; grain (dry seed-like fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "kernel"):
corn (the dried grains or kernels or corn used as animal feed or ground for meal)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The inner and usually edible part of a seed or grain or nut or fruit stone
Example:
black walnut kernels are difficult to get out of the shell
Synonyms:
kernel; meat
Classified under:
Nouns denoting plants
Hypernyms ("kernel" is a kind of...):
plant part; plant structure (any part of a plant or fungus)
Holonyms ("kernel" is a part of...):
seed (a small hard fruit)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb kernel
Context examples:
The oil extracted from the kernels of Argania spinosa.
(Argan Oil, NCI Thesaurus)
Apricot kernel oil is used for frying and cooking, in the cosmetic industry, and for skin care.
(Apricot Kernel Oil, NCI Thesaurus)
Lauric acid is found naturally in various plant and animal fats and oils, and is a major component of coconut oil and palm kernel oil.
(Lauric Acid, NCI Thesaurus)
The edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of the coconut of Cocos nucifera.
(Coconut Oil, NCI Thesaurus)
I thought I should have died when I saw you two girls rattling about in the what-you-call-it, like two little kernels in a very big nutshell, and Mother waiting in state to receive the throng, sighed Jo, quite spent with laughter.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He was dressed in clothes far too large for him, clothes of the doctor’s bigness; the cords of his face still moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone; and by the crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air, Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
A kernel function described by the equation: ((2PI)^(-0.5))*exp(-u^(2)/2) with u=(x-xi)/h, where h is the window width and xi are the values of the independent variable in the data, and x is the value of the independent variable for which one seeks an estimate.
(Gaussian Kernel, NCI Thesaurus)
The edible oil extracted from the kernels of the oil palm, Elaeis guineensis.
(Palm Kernel Oil, NCI Thesaurus)
