stratify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to form or place in strata or layers.
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to preserve or germinate (seeds) by placing them between layers of earth.
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Sociology. to arrange in a hierarchical order, especially according to graded status levels.
verb (used without object)
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to form strata.
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Geology. to lie in beds or layers.
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Sociology. to develop hierarchically, especially as graded status levels.
verb
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to form or be formed in layers or strata
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(tr) to preserve or render fertile (seeds) by storing between layers of sand or earth
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sociol to divide (a society) into horizontal status groups or (of a society) to develop such groups
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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de-stratifyverb (used with object)
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multistratifiedadjective
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nonstratifiedadjective
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semistratifiedadjective
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stratifiedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stratifysimple
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stratifiessimple
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have stratifiedperfect
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has stratifiedperfect
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am stratifyingprogressive
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are stratifyingprogressive
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is stratifyingprogressive
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have been stratifyingperfect progressive
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has been stratifyingperfect progressive
Past
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stratifiedsimple
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had stratifiedperfect
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was stratifyingprogressive
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were stratifyingprogressive
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had been stratifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stratify
1655–65; modeled on New Latin strātificāre, equivalent to strāti- strati- + -ficāre -fy
Explanation
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.
Vocabulary lists containing stratify
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Companies across the board are facing a misalignment between the way traditional corporate org charts stratify skills and getting the most out of AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025
And the most recent study found that certain blood biomarkers may help researchers stratify patients for different treatments.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2025
The researchers envision a future when the germline genome is used to further stratify the 11 breast cancer subtypes identified by Curtis to guide treatment decisions and improve prognoses and monitoring for recurrence.
From Science Daily ● May 30, 2024
But selling verification and higher visibility would "stratify" Twitter.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2022
It will stratify, and force itself onward through the adjacent and opposing atmosphere, and in a right line.
From The Philosophy of the Weather And a Guide to Its Changes by Butler, Thomas Belden
The textbook view of the oceans stratifies them into layers according to depth.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 20, 2022
During the summer months, the lake water stratifies, or forms layers, with the warmest water at the lake surface.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Because education increasingly stratifies society, so it should diligently transmit commonalities conducive to social cohesion.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2017
During the summer months, the lake water stratifies, or forms layers of temperature, with the warmest water at the lake surface.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Ah, the brain stratifies and matures, even in the pauses of the pen.
From Life and Letters of Robert Browning by Browning, Robert
The TV landscape, he says, is becoming as stratified as the experience of going to a game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
This was a “deeply stratified society” only 500 years ago, Malešević said.
From Slate ● Jul. 4, 2026
Here’s a visual representation of how spending has been stratified among economic classes in recent years.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 3, 2026
I think what’s bothered me about romance is that people have these stratified steps and a playbook and rules.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2025
Like medieval Italian city-states, Nudzahui principalities were rigidly stratified, with the king and a small group of kinspeople and noble advisers gobbling up much of the wealth and land.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Even for those whose work allows unpaid leave to heal from loss, the lack of income disproportionately affects those living in financial precarity, effectively stratifying the grief process.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2019
Companies that used to have only red are branching out; companies that used to specialize in variety are stratifying.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2015
Blame the party-by-committee phenomenon on the skyrocketing cost of night life, and the stratifying effects of social media.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2014
Another group making good headway in stratifying risk is based at the University Hospital of Salamanca in Spain.
From Nature ● Dec. 14, 2011
Stratificā′tion, act of stratifying: state of being stratified: process of being arranged in layers.—adj.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
