Stratum

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: stra=tum

CIDE DICTIONARY

Stratum, n. [L., from sternere, stratum, to spread; akin to Gr. to spread, strew. See Strew, and cf. Consternation, Estrade, Prostrate, Stratus, Street.].

•  A bed of earth or rock of one kind, formed by natural causes, and consisting usually of a series of layers, which form a rock as it lies between beds of other kinds. Also used figuratively.  [1913 Webster]
•  A bed or layer artificially made; a course.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Stratum, n. (pl. strata)
1 esp. Geol. a layer or set of successive layers of any deposited substance.
2 an atmospheric layer.
3 a layer of tissue etc.
4 a a social grade, class, etc. (the various strata of society). b Statistics each of the groups into which a population is divided in stratified sampling.

Derivative

stratal adj.

Etymology

L, = something spread or laid down, neut. past part. of sternere strew

THESAURUS

Stratum

Appleton layer, F layer, Heaviside-Kennelly layer, Van Allen belt, band, bed, bedding, belt, blood, bracket, branch, caste, category, chemosphere, clan, class, couche, course, deck, division, estate, floor, gallery, grade, group, grouping, head, heading, ionosphere, isothermal region, kin, label, layer, ledge, level, lower atmosphere, measures, order, outer atmosphere, overlayer, overstory, photosphere, pigeonhole, plane, position, predicament, race, rank, rating, rubric, seam, section, sept, set, shelf, stage, standing, station, status, step, story, strain, stratification, stratosphere, subdivision, subgroup, suborder, substratosphere, substratum, superstratum, table, thickness, tier, title, topsoil, tropopause, troposphere, underlayer, understory, understratum, upper atmosphere, vein, zone

ROGET THESAURUS

Stratum

Layer

N layer, stratum, strata, course, bed, zone, substratum, substrata, floor, flag, stage, story, tier, slab, escarpment, table, tablet, dess, flagstone, board, plank, trencher, platter, plate, lamina, lamella, sheet, foil, wafer, scale, flake, peel, coat, pellicle, membrane, film, leaf, slice, shive, cut, rasher, shaving, integument, eschar, stratification, scaliness, nest of boxes, coats of an onion, monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, lamellar, lamellated, lamelliform, layered, laminated, laminiferous, micaceous, schistose, schistous, scaly, filmy, membranous, pellicular, flaky, squamous, foliated, foliaceous, stratified, stratiform, tabular, discoid, spathic, spathose, trilamellar, graphitic.

Horizontality

N horizontality, flatness, level, plane, stratum, dead level, dead flat, level plane, recumbency, lying down, reclination, decumbence, decumbency, discumbency, proneness, accubation, supination, resupination, prostration, azimuth, plain, floor, platform, bowling green, cricket ground, croquet ground, croquet lawn, billiard table, terrace, estrade, esplanade, parterre, table land, plateau, ledge, butte, mesa (plain), level, spirit level, horizontal, level, even, plane, flat, flat as a billiard table, flat as a bowling green, alluvial, calm, calm as a mill pond, smooth, smooth as glass, recumbent, decumbent, procumbent, accumbent, lying, prone, supine, couchant, jacent, prostrate, recubant, horizontally, on one's back, on all fours, on its beam ends.