Substrate

//ˈsʌbˌstɹeɪt// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An underlying layer; a substratum.
  2. 2
    an indigenous language that contributes features to the language of an invading people who impose their language on the indigenous population wordnet
  3. 3
    The substance lining the bottom edge of an enclosure.

    "The substrate of an aquarium can affect the water's acidity."

  4. 4
    any stratum or layer lying underneath another wordnet
  5. 5
    A substance acted upon, as by an enzyme.
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    a surface on which an organism grows or is attached wordnet
  2. 7
    A surface on which an organism grows, or to which an organism or an item is attached.

    "The rock surface of a rockpool is the substrate for a sessile organism such as a limpet."

  3. 8
    the substance that is acted upon by an enzyme or ferment wordnet
  4. 9
    A language that is replaced in a population by another language and that influences the language imposed on its speakers.
  5. 10
    A metal which is plated with another metal which has different physical properties.
  6. 11
    A surface to which a substance adheres.
Verb
  1. 1
    To strew or lay under. obsolete, transitive

    "The melted glass being supported by the substrated sand."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having very slight furrows.

Example

More examples

"When a coral egg and sperm join together as an embryo, they develop into a coral larva, called a planula. Planulae float in the ocean, some for days and some for weeks, before dropping to the ocean floor. Then, depending on seafloor conditions, the planulae may attach to the substrate and grow into a new coral colony at the slow rate of about .4 inches a year."

Etymology

Anglicization of substratum.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.