Substrate

How to spell substrate

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce substrate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does substrate mean?

1. nounAn underlying layer or surface on which something is built, grows, or acts.

Substrate in a sentence

• The technician coated the silicon substrate before printing the circuit.

• Moss spread quickly across the damp wooden substrate in the garden.

Where does substrate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin substratus, the past participle of substernere, meaning 'to spread out underneath'. That verb joins sub-, meaning 'under', with sternere, meaning 'to spread, strew, or lay out flat'. The literal idea is therefore a thing laid down as a base for something else to rest upon. English assembled the modern noun in the early nineteenth century, drawing on the same Latin elements rather than borrowing a ready-made word, and it quickly settled into scientific use for the underlying surface or material on which a process happens. The same sternere root surfaces in the familiar 'stratum' and 'stratosphere', and that shared layer-spreading sense is a handy reminder that the middle of the word is 'strat', not 'strait'.

How the word is built

• sub- (under)
• strate (from Latin stratum: a layer, something spread out)