Definition of "kernel" []

• A grain or seed, as of a cereal grass, enclosed in a husk. (noun)
• The inner, usually edible seed of a nut or fruit stone. (noun)
• The most material and central part; the core: "that hard kernel of gaiety that never breaks” ( Evelyn Waugh). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "By default the kernel logger dumped all 16 MB of output into c: \kernel. etl."
• "It is, I suppose, the only nut in the world of which one throws away the kernel and eats the shell; but the kernel is as hard as marble, while the shell is fibrous, and tastes like stale ginger-bread."
• "For the last four years, the pony-tailed Jonathan Corbet, kernel developer and editor, has presented what he calls the kernel report at Australia's national Linux conference."