wafer

American  

[way-fer] / ˈweɪ fər /

noun

• wafers
  plural

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.

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verb (used with object)

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

   to wafer a letter.

wafer British  

/ 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

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verb

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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wafer-like
  adjective
• waferlike
  adjective
• wafery
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wafers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of wafer

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

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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

See Examples For:

wafer wafers

The Dutch group, which supplies chip makers with wafer processing equipment for the deposition of thin films, said revenue next year should exceed 5.7 billion euros, equivalent to $6.37 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

AI-led demand remains a key growth catalyst, with strong wafer fabrication equipment and automated test equipment demand benefiting equipment and engineering services players, he says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

An ultrathin diamond wafer converts CEBAF's electrons into a beam of high-energy photons with parallel spins.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 2, 2026

That’s because Newman estimates high-bandwidth flash will need three to four times the amount of wafer capacity per exabyte, since it requires more on-chip space.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

Inside was the Milkybar and two licorice laces and three clementines and a pink wafer biscuit and my red food coloring.

From "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon

Instead, my shopper sent me a photograph of vanilla wafers, without comment, and marked the breadcrumbs as unavailable.

From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2026

That was where businessman Tunnock stepped in with a donation which, he said at the time, amounted to a "lot of caramel wafers".

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Micron’s output for HBM was between 40,000 and 50,000 chip wafers per month last year, Electronic Times reported.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026

Many wafers shipped in 2Q were priced when they were produced in 4Q or 1Q.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 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

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Related Words

• biscuit
• cake
• candy
• cookie
• cracker

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