stratify

1 divide society into social classes or castes; "Income distribution often stratifies a society"

2 form layers or strata; "The rock stratifies"

3 develop different social levels, classes, or castes; "Society stratifies when the income gap widens"

4 form, arrange, or deposit in layers; "The fish are stratified in barrels"; "The rock was stratified by the force of the water"; "A statistician stratifies the list of names according to the addresses"

5 render fertile and preserve by placing between layers of earth or sand; "stratify seeds" [also: stratified]stratified adj

1 arranged in a sequence of grades or ranks; "stratified areas of the distribution" [syn: graded, ranked]

2 deposited or arranged in horizontal layers; "stratified rock" [syn: bedded] [ant: unstratified]

3 (used of society) socially hierarchical; "American society is becoming increasingly stratified" [syn: class-conscious]stratified See stratify

English

Adjective

1. arranged in a sequence of layers or strata
2. In the context of "of society": having a class structure

Antonyms

• unstratified

Stratification is the building up of layers, and can have several meanings

• Social stratification, is the dividing of a society into levels based on wealth or power.
• Stratification in archaeology is the formation of layers (strata) in which objects are found.
• Stratification of rock layers (strata) is part of the geologic field of Stratigraphy.
• Stratification (botany), where seeds are pretreated to simulate winter conditions so that germination may occur.
• See stratified sampling for the use of stratification in survey sampling. The term "stratified sampling" also refers a method of variance reduction in Monte Carlo methods.
• In logic, stratification is a layering of predicate symbols to guarantee unique interpretations and to avoid paradoxical definitions like Russell's paradox.
• In mathematics, Stratification has a separate meaning as applied to manifolds, and singularity theory, of a decomposition into pieces with specified relationships on fitting together.
• In music stratification is a layering of musical texture or the independent operating of more than one parameter simultaneously (see auditory stream).
• In meteorology, atmospheric stratification is the division of the atmosphere into distinct layers, each with specific properties such as temperature or humidity.
• In histology, stratified epithelium refers to epithelium that consists of two or more layers of epithelial cells, in contrast to simple epithelium, which only has one layer.
• Genetic stratification
• Stratification (water) can occur due to gradients in salinity or temperature, e.g. lake stratification.
• Stratification of air — unmixed air within a confined space that is separated into thermal layers due to temperature variations.
• A way an internal combustion operates, when direct injection is used to burn fuel just at the sparkplug and keep in the rest of the cylinder plain air. This reduces fuel consumption significantly.

See also

• Destratification
• Partition

assorted, cataloged, classified, filed, filmy, foliaceous, foliated, graded, grouped, hierarchic, in layers, indexed, lamellar, lamellate, lamellated, lamelliform, laminate, laminated, laminous, leaflike, leafy, membranous, on file, pigeonholed, placed, pyramidal, ranked, rated, scummy, sorted, spathic, spathose, stratiform, tabular, three-ply, two-ply