wafer

American  

[wey-fer] / ˈweɪ fər /

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.

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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

• wafer-like adjective
• waferlike adjective
• wafery adjective

Etymology

Origin of wafer

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

Example Sentences

Chip makers use it to maintain stable temperatures while etching silicon wafers into advanced semiconductors.

From The Wall Street Journal

It's a byproduct of the production of natural gas and is used in the manufacture of semiconductor wafers, which are then processed into the microchips used in computers, vehicles and household appliances.

From BBC

However, Micron is expected to begin wafer output from a $50 billion expansion of its facilities in Idaho around the middle of next year.

From Barron's

One terawatt of annual compute would require between 7 million and 18 million 300-millimeter wafer starts produced each month, according to the Bernstein team, which based its “very rough” estimates off current industry costs.

From MarketWatch

The company produces many chips at once on silicon wafers.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• biscuit
• cake
• candy
• cookie
• cracker