Definition

Noun: 1. A thin, crisp, often sweetened cake or cookie: A small, flat, dry baked item, typically made from flour, sugar, and flavorings. 2. A thin disk of unleavened bread used in the Eucharist: A small, round piece of bread, often stamped with a religious symbol, used in Christian religious services, especially Holy Communion. 3. A small adhesive disk used for sealing: A thin piece of paper or material with a gummed back, used historically to seal letters or documents.

Examples of Usage

• As a thin, crisp cake:
  • She enjoyed a chocolate wafer with her afternoon tea.
  • The ice cream sandwich was held together by two vanilla wafers.
• As a religious item:
  • The priest placed the wafer on the communicant's tongue.
  • The wafer, representing the body of Christ, is central to the Mass.
• As an adhesive seal:
  • He sealed the envelope with a red wax wafer.
  • Legal documents in the 19th century were often closed with an official wafer.

Advanced Usage

• "As thin as a wafer": An idiom used to describe something extremely thin or delicate.
  • The slices of cucumber were cut as thin as a wafer.
• In technology: The term is also used in electronics to refer to a thin slice of semiconductor material (like silicon) used in making integrated circuits. This is a specialized, technical meaning.
  • The factory produces silicon wafers for computer chips.

Variants and Related Words

• Wafer-thin (adjective): Extremely thin.
  • He cut the ham into wafer-thin slices.
• Wafers (plural noun): The standard plural form for all meanings.

Synonyms

• For the cake: Biscuit (UK), cookie, crisp.
• For the religious item: Host, sacramental bread, communion bread.
• For the seal: Seal, adhesive disk.

Related Phrases

• Water wafer: A type of very light, crisp, and often unsweetened wafer.
  • The dessert was garnished with a delicate water wafer.

Noun

1. thin disk of unleavened bread used in a religious service (especially in the celebration of the Eucharist)
2. a small thin crisp cake or cookie
3. a small adhesive disk of paste; used to seal letters