Maize is the domesticated variant of the four species of teosintes, which are its crop wild relatives. The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between the two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes, called grassy tillers-1 (gt1, A0A317YEZ1) and teosinte branched-1 (tb1, Q93WI2). In 2004, John Doebley identified Balsas teosinte, Zea mays subsp. parviglumis, native to the Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, as the crop wild relative genetically most similar to modern maize. Maize pollen dated to 7,300 years ago from San Andres, Tabasco has been found on the Caribbean coast. A primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America 7,000 years ago.

Maize requires human intervention for its propagation. The kernels of its naturally-propagating teosinte ancestor fall off the cob on their own, while those of domesticated maize do not. All maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Maize spread from this region to the lowlands and over the Americas along two major paths. The centre of domestication was most likely the Balsas River valley of south-central Mexico. Maize reached highland Ecuador at least 8000 years ago. It reached lower Central America by 7600 years ago, and the valleys of the Colombian Andes between 7000 and 6000 years ago.

The earliest maize plants grew a single, small ear per plant. The Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica; they cooked, ground and processed it through nixtamalization. By 3000 years ago, maize was central to Olmec culture, including their calendar, language, and myths.

After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize, and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe. Spanish settlers much preferred wheat bread to maize. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief at that time only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into the body of Christ.

Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. It was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa, the Philippines and elsewhere. By the 17th century, it was a common peasant food in Southern Europe. By the 18th century, it was the chief food of the southern French and Italian peasantry, especially as polenta in Italy.

When maize was introduced into Western farming systems, it was welcomed for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever it had become a staple food. Indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water – made with ashes and lime – since at least 1200–1500 BC, creating the process of nixtamalization. They did this to liberate the corn hulls, but coincidentally it also liberated the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which caused pellagra. Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high-lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize.

The name maize derives from the Spanish form maíz of the Taíno mahis. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus used the common name maize as the species epithet in Zea mays. The name maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. Most countries primarily use the term maize, and the name corn is used mainly in the United States and a handful of other English-speaking countries. In countries that primarily use the term maize, the word corn may denote any cereal crop, varying geographically with the local staple, such as wheat in England and oats in Scotland or Ireland. The usage of corn for maize started as a shortening of "Indian corn" in 18th-century North America.

Maize is a tall annual grass with a single stem, ranging in height from 1.2 to 4m. The long narrow leaves arise from the nodes or joints, alternately on opposite sides on the stalk. Maize is monoecious, with separate male and female flowers on the same plant. At the top of the stem is the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers; their anthers release pollen, which is dispersed by wind. Like other pollen, it is an allergen, but most of it falls within a few meters of the tassel and the risk is largely restricted to farm workers. The female inflorescence, some way down the stem from the tassel, is first seen as a silk, a bundle of soft tubular hairs, one for the carpel in each female flower, which develops into a kernel (often called a seed. Botanically, as in all grasses, it is a fruit, fused with the seed coat to form a caryopsis) when it is pollinated. A whole female inflorescence develops into an ear or corncob, enveloped by multiple leafy layers or husks. The ear leaf is the leaf most closely associated with a particular developing ear. This leaf and those above it contribute over three quarters of the carbohydrate (starch) that fills the grain.

The grains are usually yellow or white in modern varieties; other varieties have orange, red, brown, blue, purple, or black grains. They are arranged in 8 to 32 rows around the cob; there can be up to 1200 grains on a large cob. Yellow maizes derive their colour from carotenoids; red maizes are coloured by anthocyanins and phlobaphenes; and orange and green varieties may contain combinations of these pigments.

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2020, total world production was 1.16 billion tonnes, led by the United States with 31.0% of the total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total.

Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the world. Maize is used to produce the food ingredient cornstarch. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener. Maize may be fermented to produce beer (common in Italy) and further distilled to produce Bourbon whiskey. Corn oil is extracted from the germ of the grain.

In prehistoric times, Mesoamerican women used a metate quern to grind maize into cornmeal. After ceramic vessels were invented the Olmec people began to cook maize together with beans, improving the nutritional value of the staple meal. Although maize naturally contains niacin, an important nutrient, it is not bioavailable without the process of nixtamalization. The Maya used nixtamal meal to make porridges and tamales. Maize is a staple of Mexican cuisine. Masa (nixtamal) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Central American food. It is the main ingredient of corn tortilla, tamales, atole and the dishes based on these. The corn smut fungus, known as huitlacoche, which grows on maize, is a Mexican delicacy.

Coarse maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (or hominy grits in the Southern US) or the food called mieliepap in South Africa and sadza, nshima, ugali and other names in other parts of Africa. Introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become Africa's most important staple food crop.

Sweet corn (or sweetcorn), a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is eaten in the unripe state as corn on the cob.

The alphabetical list of all the maize/corn-based recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 436 recipes in total:

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Pap II      Origin: South Africa	Potted Squat Lobsters with Ginger and Basil      Origin: Britain	Sint Eustatian Johnny Cakes      Origin: Sint Eustatian
Parsley Pasty      Origin: England	Pounded Beans      Origin: Burundi	Slangetjies (Pea Flour Noodles)      Origin: South Africa
Parsley Stuffing      Origin: England	Pressure Cooker Steamed Mealie Bread      Origin: South Africa	Soda Bread      Origin: Britain
Pastel de Choclo      Origin: Chile	Pretzel-crusted Catfish      Origin: Ghana	Sopa Mexicana de Flor de Calabaza (Mexican Pumpkin Flower Soup)      Origin: Mexico
Pastel De Choclo (Corn Pudding)      Origin: Argentina	Pudding di Mashi (Corn Pudding)      Origin: Aruba	Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Aruba
Pastelle Dough      Origin: Trinidad	Puerto Rican Tembleque (Quaking Coconut Pudding)      Origin: Puerto Rico	Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Bonaire
Pastelón de Harina de Maíz (Cornmeal and Beef Casserole)      Origin: Dominican Republic	Putu-Pap (Crumbly Pap)      Origin: South Africa	Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Curacao
Pastes hern lagesek (Stargazy Pie)      Origin: England	Rabbity Pasty      Origin: England	Sour Milk Ginger Cake      Origin: England
Pastes hern lagesek (Stargazy Pie)      Origin: England	Raw Fry      Origin: England	Sour Sauce Pasty      Origin: England
Pasties Boiled in Beef Broth      Origin: Cornwall	Ray Wings in a Pepper and Brown Butter Sauce      Origin: Britain	Soused Cornish Sardines      Origin: England
Pastry for Pasties      Origin: England	Rice Pudding Pasty      Origin: England	Southern Cornbread      Origin: American
Penzance Cake      Origin: England	Riz des Iles (Island Rice)      Origin: Comoros	Southern Succotash      Origin: America
Penzance Cake II      Origin: England	Roast Megrim with Parsley and Caper Butter      Origin: England	Spider Crab Casserole      Origin: Britain
Penzance Cake III      Origin: England	Rwandan Ugali      Origin: Rwanda	Spider-crab Salad with Cornish Earlies      Origin: Britain
Penzance Grey Mullet      Origin: Cornwall	Saba Johnny Cakes      Origin: Saba	Spinach and Potato Croquettes      Origin: Ireland
Piroshki      Origin: Russia	Sadza (Corn Porridge)      Origin: Zimbabwe	Splytys Kernewek (Cornish Splits)      Origin: England
Poached Bream in Mayonnaise Sauce      Origin: Britain	Saffron Prawn Both      Origin: Britain	Sri Lankan Love Cake      Origin: Sri Lanka
Poached Sea Trout with Green Mayonnaise      Origin: Britain	Sage and Onion Stuffed Monkfish      Origin: Britain	St Clements Morning Quickbread      Origin: Britain
Podin Bara Amenyn (Bread and Butter Pudding)      Origin: England	Saint Lucia Paime      Origin: Saint Lucia	Stargazy Pasty      Origin: England
Podin Henlys (Helston Pudding)      Origin: England	Salted Pilchard and Leek Pie      Origin: Britain	Stewed Scallops in Milk      Origin: Britain
Podin Lymmaval (Lemmon Pudding)      Origin: England	Samp      Origin: eSwatini	Strawberry Jelly      Origin: England
Podin Nadelik (Cornish Stout and Marmalade Christmas Pudding)      Origin: Britain	Samp and Beans Croquettes      Origin: South Africa	Stuffed Chicken Roll-ups      Origin: Cornwall
Podin Pes (Cornish Pease Pudding)      Origin: England	Sancochi di Galinja (Chicken Stew)      Origin: Aruba	Succotash      Origin: America
Polenta aux Herbes (Herbed Polenta)      Origin: Guinea	Sancocho de siete carnes (Seven meat stew)      Origin: Dominican Republic	Suck Cream      Origin: England
Polka-Dot Corn Muffins      Origin: American	Sancocho Dominicano (Dominican Stew)      Origin: Dominican Republic	Sugarplum Turkish Delights      Origin: Britain
Pollack Pie with Crushed Potato Topping      Origin: Britain	Sausage Roly-poly      Origin: England	Swazi Cornbread      Origin: eSwatini
Poné de Citrouille (Pumpkin Pone)      Origin: French Guiana	Scallop Broth with Cornish Earlies      Origin: England	Tagliarini with Gurnard, Parsley, Garlic and Sea Spaghetti      Origin: England
Poné de Citrouille (Pumpkin Pone)      Origin: Guyana	SChayote-potato Cakese (Chayote-potato Cakes)      Origin: French Guiana	Taita (Eritrean Flatbread)      Origin: Eritrea
Popcorn Balls      Origin: American	Scrambled Eggs with Thee-cornered Leek      Origin: Britain	Tamal de Olla      Origin: Panama
Pork and Seaweed Pie with Potato Crust      Origin: England	Selsyg Kernowek (Cornish Sausages)      Origin: England	Tartys Choklet (Chocolate Tarts)      Origin: England
Pork Chops with Sloe Sauce and Savoy Cabbage      Origin: England	Semovita      Origin: Nigeria	Tesen Aval (Cornish Apple Cake)      Origin: England
Pork Pasty      Origin: England	Shellfish and Leek Roly-poly      Origin: Britain	Three-cornered Leek Omelette      Origin: Britain
Potato Cream Cake      Origin: Britain	Shima      Origin: Mozambique
Potato Jowdle      Origin: England	Sidvudvu (Pumpkin Porridge)      Origin: eSwatini

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