The head or ear of grain atop a cereal stalk — the part that contains the edible kernels. All five NT occurrences involve grain fields and agricultural imagery. In the Sabbath controversy, the disciples pluck heads of grain as they walk through the fields (Matt 12:1; Mark 2:23; Luke 6:1). Mark 4:28 uses the word twice in Jesus' parable of the growing seed, tracing the plant's development from blade to ear to full grain — a progression the Spanish espiga and German Ahre capture precisely. The word evokes the agrarian world of first-century Palestine, where ripening grain was a daily sight and a rich source of metaphor.