wafer

[wey-fer]

noun

1. a thin, crisp cake or biscuit, often sweetened and flavored.

2. a thin disk of unleavened bread, used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church.

3. a thin disk of dried paste, gelatin, adhesive paper, or the like, used for sealing letters, attaching papers, etc.

4. Medicine/Medical.,  a thin sheet of dry paste or the like, used to enclose a powder to be swallowed.

5. any small, thin disk, as a washer or piece of insulation.

6. Electronics.,  a thin slice of semiconductor used as a base material on which single transistors or integrated-circuit components are formed.

verb (used with object)

1. to seal, close, or attach by means of a wafer or wafers.

   to wafer a letter.

wafer

/ ˈweɪfə /

noun

1. a thin crisp sweetened biscuit with different flavourings, served with ice cream, etc

2. Christianity a thin disc of unleavened bread used in the Eucharist as celebrated by the Western Church

3. pharmacol an envelope of rice paper enclosing a medicament

4. electronics a large single crystal of semiconductor material, such as silicon, on which numerous integrated circuits are manufactured and then separated

5. a small thin disc of adhesive material used to seal letters, documents, etc

verb

1. (tr) to seal, fasten, or attach with a wafer

Other Word Forms

• waferlike adjective
• wafery adjective
• wafer-like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of wafer¹

1350–1400; Middle English wafre < Middle Dutch wafer, variant of wafel waffle ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of wafer¹

C14: from Old Northern French waufre, from Middle Low German wāfel; related to _waffle ¹

Example Sentences

One former Treasury minister, Lord Bridges, told the Lords: "This is not a fiscal buffer; it is a fiscal wafer, so thin and fragile that it will snap at the slightest tap."

Read more on BBC

Generally, smaller chips also translate to a higher yield per silicon wafer used in the lengthy chipmaking process, because more potential products can fit on each wafer used.

Read more on MarketWatch

Generally, smaller chips also translate to a higher yield per silicon wafer used in the lengthy chipmaking process, because more potential products can fit on each wafer used.

Read more on MarketWatch

The U.S. has banned the sale of tools known as extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, which inscribe silicon wafers with microscopic patterns filled by billions of transistors.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At Corning’s solar energy plant in a rural Michigan facility, workers turn chunky polysilicon rocks into perfect wafers, the building blocks of solar panels.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• biscuit 
• cake 
• candy 
• cookie 
• cracker