In the modern world, no it's not a cereal. In the olden days, yes grains are cereals. If you eat oatmeal daily, then it's serial.

We don’t call oatmeal cereal in my house .

My husband calls oatmeal and cream of wheat etc hot cereal and cornflakes, grape nuts “cold cereal” and it drives me insane! Just call cereal in a box “cereal” not “cold cereal”!! And now he calls it “cold, ready to eat cereal” just to get my goat. Grrr!!!

But yes oatmeal is cereal - hot cereal.

While technically it is, we wouldn’t classify it as cereal when discussing what to have fir breakfast. I ask the kids, do you want toast, cereal, porridge…. We wouldn’t lump in porridge as cereal. Cereal is cornflakes, rice bubbles, Cheerios, weetbix etc. Porridge is cooked. Perhaps we are Neanderthals in our classification system though?

Anonymous wrote:This situation is like arguing that green beans and squash are fruits rather than vegetables. Technically, yes they are. But colloquially (and culinarily), people call them vegetables.

+1 We all know that a bell pepper is technically a fruit, but we treat it as a "vegetable." We all know that oatmeal is technically a cereal, but we (well, the majority of Americans) call it oatmeal, not cereal.

Yes of course!

This situation is like arguing that green beans and squash are fruits rather than vegetables. Technically, yes they are. But colloquially (and culinarily), people call them vegetables.