Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 January 31

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 31

Question about grains

under varieties section in whole grain link below What do the brackets mean? why are they there, when they're put next to whole grain sources, for example: Wheat (spelt, emmer, farro, einkorn, Kamut, durum)

Rice (black, brown, red, and other colored rice varieties)

and the others etc

Barley (hulled and dehulled but not pearl)

Whole grain 118.210.107.193 (talk) 14:16, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

Those are varieties of the named grain. So, for example, spelt and emmer are varieties of wheat, while black rice is a variety of rice. --Jayron32 14:18, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

[Edit conflict. NB: OP changed question, about wheat only, after I wrote my answer] They are enclosing a list of various kinds of wheat. It's just a more concise way of saying ". . . wheat, whose varieties include spelt, emmer, [etc.]". This is a very common usage in English-language writing.

(We could get into a debate about shades of meaning between "kind", "variety", "species" and the very complicated genetics of wheat, but that would be a side issue to the question. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.221.194.253 (talk) 14:20, 31 January 2023 (UTC)