What is oatmeal?

[realhousewifeofdevoncounty]

I always assumed it was just the American term for oats/porridge, but I have just heard it being referred to on a uk tv programme. I have bought/consumed regular oats, oatbran and those jumbo oats with the husks still on. But what is oatmeal?!

Ground oats basically. So if you've a food processor or powerful blender you can just grind down oats into a fine/coarse powder depending on what the recipe needs.

Jumbo oats are steamed and rolled. Oatmeal is chopped oats, either coarse or fine. Makes lovely porridge but takes longer than rolled oats. The fine version is often used as a coating instead of breadcrumbs. Herring in oatmeal is a classic, for example.