wafer
/'weifə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
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
- thin disk of unleavened bread used in a religious service (especially in the celebration of the Eucharist)
- a small thin crisp cake or cookie
- a small adhesive disk of paste; used to seal letters