stratify
Other forms: stratified; stratifying; stratifies
Stratify means to divide into layers or classes. Announcing pay raises for only half of the employees in a company would be a quick way to stratify the office.
Stratify is often used in the context of geology, when materials in the earth’s crust stratify, or form layers. This phenomenon serves as an apt metaphor for other uses of the word, particularly as it's applied to social situations. If you attend a party for geologists and notice that the mineralogists are ignoring the petrologists (and the vulcanologist didn’t even bother to show up), you might conclude that something has caused this group of geologists to stratify.
-
form, arrange, or deposit in layers“The fish are stratified in barrels”“The rock was stratified by the force of the water”“A statistician stratifies the list of names according to the addresses”
-
form layers or strata
-
render fertile and preserve by placing between layers of earth or sand“stratify seeds”
-
type of:
-
fecundate, fertilise, fertilize, inseminate
introduce semen into (a female)
-
fecundate, fertilise, fertilize, inseminate
-
develop different social levels, classes, or castes“Society stratifies when the income gap widens”
-
type of:
-
change
undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
-
change
-
divide society into social classes or castes“Income distribution often stratifies a society”
-
type of:
-
differentiate, distinguish, secern, secernate, separate, severalise, severalize, tell, tell apart
mark as different
-
differentiate, distinguish, secern, secernate, separate, severalise, severalize, tell, tell apart
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing stratify
This award-winning book traces the history of indigenous peoples before, during, and after the founding of the United States of America.
Look up stratify for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
