[syn: level, layer, stratum]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Stratum \Stra"tum\, n.; pl. E. Stratums, L. Strata. The
latter is more common. [L., from sternere, stratum, to
spread; akin to Gr. ? to spread, strew. See Strew, and cf.
Consternation, Estrade, Prostrate, Stratus,
Street.]
1. (Geol.) A bed of earth or rock of one kind, formed by
natural causes, and consisting usually of a series of
layers, which form a rock as it lies between beds of other
kinds. Also used figuratively.
[1913 Webster]
2. A bed or layer artificially made; a course.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
stratum
n 1: one of several parallel layers of material arranged one on
top of another (such as a layer of tissue or cells in an
organism or a layer of sedimentary rock)
2: people having the same social, economic, or educational
status; "the working class"; "an emerging professional class"
[syn: class, stratum, social class, socio-economic
class]
3: an abstract place usually conceived as having depth; "a good
actor communicates on several levels"; "a simile has at least
two layers of meaning"; "the mind functions on many strata
simultaneously" [syn: level, layer, stratum]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
83 Moby Thesaurus words for "stratum":
Appleton layer, F layer, Heaviside-Kennelly layer, Van Allen belt,
band, bed, bedding, belt, blood, bracket, branch, caste, category,
chemosphere, clan, class, couche, course, deck, division, estate,
floor, gallery, grade, group, grouping, head, heading, ionosphere,
isothermal region, kin, label, layer, ledge, level,
lower atmosphere, measures, order, outer atmosphere, overlayer,
overstory, photosphere, pigeonhole, plane, position, predicament,
race, rank, rating, rubric, seam, section, sept, set, shelf, stage,
standing, station, status, step, story, strain, stratification,
stratosphere, subdivision, subgroup, suborder, substratosphere,
substratum, superstratum, table, thickness, tier, title, topsoil,
tropopause, troposphere, underlayer, understory, understratum,
upper atmosphere, vein, zone