stratify

American  

[strat-uh-fahy] / ˈstræt əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

• stratifies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stratified,
  past participle,  past
• stratifying
  present participle

1. to form or place in strata or layers.

2. to preserve or germinate (seeds) by placing them between layers of earth.

3. Sociology. to arrange in a hierarchical order, especially according to graded status levels.

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verb (used without object)

• stratifies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stratified,
  past participle,  past
• stratifying
  present participle

1. to form strata.

2. Geology. to lie in beds or layers.

3. Sociology. to develop hierarchically, especially as graded status levels.

stratify British  

/ ˈstrætɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to form or be formed in layers or strata

2. (tr) to preserve or render fertile (seeds) by storing between layers of sand or earth

3. sociol to divide (a society) into horizontal status groups or (of a society) to develop such groups

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• de-stratify
  verb (used with object)
• multistratified
  adjective
• nonstratified
  adjective
• semistratified
  adjective
• stratified
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• stratifying
  present
• stratified
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stratify
  simple
• stratifies
  simple
• have stratified
  perfect
• has stratified
  perfect
• am stratifying
  progressive
• are stratifying
  progressive
• is stratifying
  progressive
• have been stratifying
  perfect progressive
• has been stratifying
  perfect progressive

Past

• stratified
  simple
• had stratified
  perfect
• was stratifying
  progressive
• were stratifying
  progressive
• had been stratifying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stratify
  simple
• will have stratified
  perfect
• will be stratifying
  progressive
• will have been stratifying
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stratify stratifies stratified stratifying

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

When information is purveyed in chunks simply as information to be retained for its own sake, it tends to stratify over vital experience.

From Democracy and Education: an introduction to the philosophy of education by John Dewey

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

Air is a peculiar fluid, and it stratifies with astonishing ease.

From The Philosophy of the Weather And a Guide to Its Changes by Thomas Belden Butler

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

For instance, while it is by no means an eat-the-rich manifesto, the musical explores how financially stratified New York—and London and other cities—has become.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025

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

Although Hopewell villages were as small as those of their more egalitarian neighbors, they were stratified, with priesdy rulers controlling the rest of the populace.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Square Enix took the low-resolution prerendered dioramas of the original game — gorgeous in their own right — and zoomed in, stratifying them with detail and depth, adding craggy peaks, dense jungles and sun-baked deserts.

From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2024

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

Aside from stratifying patients by their expected progression rate, clinical researchers would also like to know whether there are different subtypes of ALS, caused by different molecular pathways that might provide targets for drugs.

From Nature ● Oct. 17, 2017

Companies that used to have only red are branching out; companies that used to specialize in variety are stratifying.

From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2015

Much stress is laid upon stratifying the spawn before using, when dry spawn is employed.

From Mushrooms: how to grow them a practical treatise on mushroom culture for profit and pleasure by William Falconer