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

At one point Dan looked at me and started laughing as I tried to make myself wafer thin.

From Los Angeles Times

CMP is a critical process using chemical slurries and mechanical polishing to create perfectly flat, smooth wafer surfaces.

From The Wall Street Journal

Experienced workers have to check that it is at the right consistency, and it takes a team of 12 to spread the caramel in five layers that make up the Tunnock's wafer biscuit.

From BBC

“The higher silicon intensity of HBM has absorbed a significant portion of wafer starts, causing supply tightness across existing lines,” Weathers continued.

From Barron's

The researchers created the breakthrough material by growing a thin germanium layer on a silicon wafer and then applying a precise amount of compressive strain.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• biscuit
• cake
• candy
• cookie
• cracker