Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies. It is the grain with the third-highest worldwide production, after maize (corn) and wheat, according to data for 2009.

Rice is first mentioned in the Yajur Veda and then is frequently referred to in Sanskrit texts.^{[citation needed]} In India, there is a saying that grains of rice should be like two brothers, close but not stuck together.^{[citation needed]} Rice is often directly associated with prosperity and fertility, therefore there is the custom of throwing rice at weddings.

Since a large portion of maize crops are grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by the human species.