wafer
Americannoun
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wafers
plural
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a thin, crisp cake or biscuit, often sweetened and flavored.
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a thin disk of unleavened bread, used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church.
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a thin disk of dried paste, gelatin, adhesive paper, or the like, used for sealing letters, attaching papers, etc.
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Medicine/Medical. a thin sheet of dry paste or the like, used to enclose a powder to be swallowed.
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any small, thin disk, as a washer or piece of insulation.
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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)
noun
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a thin crisp sweetened biscuit with different flavourings, served with ice cream, etc
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Christianity a thin disc of unleavened bread used in the Eucharist as celebrated by the Western Church
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pharmacol an envelope of rice paper enclosing a medicament
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electronics a large single crystal of semiconductor material, such as silicon, on which numerous integrated circuits are manufactured and then separated
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a small thin disc of adhesive material used to seal letters, documents, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of wafer
1350–1400; Middle English wafre < Middle Dutch wafer, variant of wafel waffle 1
Explanation
A very thin, crispy cookie is called a wafer. Chocolate cream sandwiched with wafers is a delicious treat. In addition to a cookie, wafer can also refer to the thin bread used during the Christian ritual of Holy Communion. These wafers are small and round. The word is used for other thin, disc-shaped objects as well, like an electronic wafer, a circular sliver of material that helps form a circuit. But the most common meaning is still the original "thin cake of paste," from a root that wafer shares with waffle.
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:
Despite aggressive expansion, the company’s overall wafer utilization rate was 93.7% in the June quarter, up from 93.1% in the March quarter, it said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Every wafer is grown in China, every shipment needs a Beijing permit, and the company holds stakes in 10 Chinese suppliers.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
Even allowing generously for waste, the whole wafer industry plausibly uses tens of tons a year, not hundreds.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
The clearest read on qualified-wafer pricing is what it did to a wafer maker’s accounts: AXT’s gross margin rose from 8% of revenue to nearly 45% in a year.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
“Cookie?” she asked, pointing to the package of wafer cookies on the table next to her.
From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez
Caltech researchers have found a way to move light across silicon wafers with exceptionally little signal loss, reaching levels at visible wavelengths that approach those of optical fiber.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
They adapt the material to a lithography-based manufacturing method suitable for making devices on wafers.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Intel sees “significant growth opportunities” from its advancements in areas such as physical AI, custom silicon, advanced chip packaging and external wafers, the company added.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
This would produce the silicon wafers needed to make quantum-computing processors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
There are few things better than vanilla wafers dunked in milky coffee.
From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez
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.
