wafer

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A very thin, light, crisp cookie or biscuit.

   Grammar: Often served with ice cream.

   Patterns

   • a wafer of something

   She served vanilla ice cream with a thin wafer.

   The children ate chocolate wafers after lunch.

   A wafer cone is a crunchy holder for ice cream.

2. 2nouncountablereligion

   A thin round piece of bread used in Christian communion.

   Grammar: Religious use: the communion wafer.

   Patterns

   • a communion wafer

   The priest placed a wafer on each tongue.

   The church baked its own communion wafers.

   He received the wafer and returned to his seat.

3. 3nouncountabletechnical

   A thin slice of silicon or other material on which computer chips are made.

   Grammar: Technical term: a silicon wafer.

   Patterns

   • a silicon wafer

   Hundreds of chips are cut from a single wafer.

   The factory polishes each silicon wafer until smooth.

   A defect in the wafer ruined the batch.

4. 4nouncountablefigurative

   Any small, very thin slice or piece of something.

   Grammar: Figurative; often wafer-thin.

   Patterns

   • a wafer of something

   He cut a wafer of cheese for the cracker.

   The margin of victory was wafer-thin.

   A wafer of ice formed on the puddle.

Word forms

Common combinations

wafer-thin

The cheese was cut wafer-thin.

silicon wafer

Chips are built on a silicon wafer.

communion wafer

The communion wafer is blessed by the priest.

vanilla wafer

He crushed a vanilla wafer into the pudding.

ice cream wafer

The ice cream wafer was crisp.

Synonyms and how they differ

cracker

A cracker is savory and thicker, while a wafer is thin and often sweet.

biscuit

Biscuit in Britain covers any cookie, while wafer names the thin crisp kind.

slice

Slice is a general cut piece, but a wafer is much thinner.

disk

Disk is any round flat thing, while wafer stresses thinness.

Word family

wafer-thin adjective

extremely thin

waffle noun

a related word for a batter cake with a grid pattern

wafery adjective

like a wafer, rare

Commonly confused: wafer or waffle?

Practice

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