Both terms are also used depending on specific aspects of preparation and farming, as well as intended use and whether it’s a specific type of grain. For example, corn is most commonly used when referring to food items, such as popcorn, whereas maize is less commonly used to describe these foods, even though it comes from the same crop.

Zea, genus of five species of large grasses of the family Poaceae, native to Mexico and Mesoamerica. The best-known species is corn, or maize ( Zea mays mays ), which was derived from one of the Mexican teosintes (likely Z. mays parviglumis) in pre-Columbian times more than 6,000 years ago.