Cornflakes are small, dry, flat pieces made from crushed maize — the yellow grain Americans call corn. People usually eat them in a bowl with cold milk at breakfast. They start crunchy and go soft if they sit in the milk too long. The word is almost always plural: the food in the box is cornflakes; one single piece is a cornflake. They began as a health food in the United States and are now a very ordinary breakfast in many countries. A brand name is often used as if it were the name of the food itself. Other breakfast cereals can be “flakes” too, but cornflakes are the maize ones.