wheat: the main bread grain of ancient Israel, prized above barley
This is the ordinary word for wheat, the leading cereal crop of the biblical world and the source of its best bread. It usually appears in the plural, naming the grains or kernels themselves rather than the standing plant, which is why it is so often something measured, stored, traded, or paid as tribute.
Wheat carried a note of quality. When the Bible lists a land's good things, wheat regularly heads the grains, and "the finest of the wheat" stands for God's rich provision. It ripens later than barley, so the wheat harvest marks a distinct point in the farming year, a detail that anchors several stories in their season.
The word itself is not in doubt. Everyone agrees it means wheat, and the interest lies not in what it means but in the everyday world it opens up: harvests, threshing floors, storehouses, and the daily bread that wheat became.