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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stratum \Stra"tum\, noun; pl. E. {Stratums}, L. {Strata}. The latter is more common. [L., from sternere, stratum, to spread; akin to Gr. ? to spread, strew. See {Strew}, and cf. {Consternation}, {Estrade}, {Prostrate}, {Stratus}, {Street}.]
1. (Geol.) A bed of earth or rock of one kind, formed by natural causes, and consisting usually of a series of layers, which form a rock as it lies between beds of other kinds. Also used figuratively.
2. A bed or layer artificially made; a course.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
stratum
noun
1: one of several parallel layers of material arranged one on top of another (such as a layer of tissue or cells in an organism)
2: an abstract place usually conceived as having depth; "a good actor communicates on several levels"; "a simile has at least two layers of meaning"; "the mind functions on many strata simultaneously" [syn: {level}, {layer}] [also: {strata} (pl)]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
83 Moby Thesaurus words for "stratum": Appleton layer, F layer, Heaviside-Kennelly layer, Van Allen belt, band, bed, bedding, belt, blood, bracket, branch, caste, category, chemosphere, clan, class, couche, course, deck, division, estate, floor, gallery, grade, group, grouping, head, heading, ionosphere, isothermal region, kin, label, layer, ledge, level, lower atmosphere, measures, order, outer atmosphere, overlayer, overstory, photosphere, pigeonhole, plane, position, predicament, race, rank, rating, rubric, seam, section, sept, set, shelf, stage, standing, station, status, step, story, strain, stratification, stratosphere, subdivision, subgroup, suborder, substratosphere, substratum, superstratum, table, thickness, tier, title, topsoil, tropopause, troposphere, underlayer, understory, understratum, upper atmosphere, vein, zone
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