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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > STRATIFY

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pronounce STRATIFY:

STRAT if eye
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connect this word to others:

The word stratify comes from the Latin stratum, "something spread out," so it's related to all kinds of words about spreading or stretching things out, often into layers, like street, stratum, stratosphere, substrate, prostrate, and consternation. (Consternation? Yup: that's the feeling of being thrown down on the ground, stretched flat, astonished and terrified.)

We often use the word stratify to talk about societies that have broken up into separate layers or levels, with more wealth and privilege concentrated in the higher strata, and more poverty and misery in the lower strata.

See if you can come up with a word that's like stratify, but even more extreme: When a group splits up into separate, hostile sections, it's b___k__ized.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

Our word "stratify" traces back to the Latin stratum, "something spread out," and further to sternere, "to spread out, to stretch out, to lay down." 

When things stratify, they form into different strata (layers). In other words, to stratify is to take the shape of many layers or levels, often in a way that organizes people into layers, with rich or privileged people at the top and poor or underprivileged people at the bottom.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, both the transitive kind ("The event stratified society") and the intransitive kind ("Society stratified further").

Other forms: 

The singular noun is "stratum," and the plural, "strata."

If you need a noun for the process or the existence of strata, there's "stratification."

The other verb forms are "stratified" and "stratifying."

"Stratified" is also handy as an adjective: "this stratified limestone," "a stratified society."

how to use it:

Pick the common, formal, serious word "stratify" when you want to talk about how groups have been split into sub-groups with different (and distinct) levels of privilege.

You might talk about stratified nations, societies, caste systems, or worlds, either now or in the past, in reality or in fiction. Here's the New York Times: "'Upload' [is] a dark, class-conscious comedy series about a socially stratified digital afterlife."

Even events and experiences can be stratified. For example, you might notice how a venue has stratified the concert-going experience, giving wealthy fans backstage passes while the rest of us squint to see the performer. Here's another example, from the Washington Post: "Never before has air travel seemed... so stratified, turning economy into steerage with pretzels." 

examples:

"The publishing industry is a rigorously stratified world, characterized by a reverence for hierarchy and a near-fanatical observance of ritual."
   — Rosa Lyster, New York Times, 15 March 2024

"North Korea... invented one of the world's most rigidly stratified caste systems. Three broad classes were created with fifty-one subgroups: at the top, members of the core class could obtain jobs in government, the Korean Workers' Party, officer ranks in the military and the intelligence services."
  — Blaine Harden, Escape from Camp 14, 2012

has this page helped you understand "stratify"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "stratify" without saying "split" or "separate."

try it out:

In a book review, Nora Krug and Stephanie Merry noted:

"[Leila Slimani] delivers another portrait of the power dynamics that stratify society. In post-World War II Morocco, a French woman and her Morrocan husband are bombarded with reminders that their union has divorced them from their countrymen."

Talk about what that means: why has society been stratified in this story? And how does that stratification affect the two main characters? Could you also give another example, either from real life or fiction, where a stratified society causes problems only for certain people?




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "It's That Thing..."

We'll play with some highly slangy, reasonably wholesome terms, courtesy of Urban Dictionary.

I'll give you three terms, and you attempt to define them. Scroll down to see the correct definitions, and give yourself a point for each term that you defined either correctly or believably.

Try these today:

1. Pretendance

2. Broligarch

3. Scamwich

review this word:

1. The opposite of STRATIFY could be

A. UNITE.
B. HEIGHTEN.
C. WING IT.

2. When researchers stratify people or things, they're _____.

A. controlling for bias in their samples
B. identifying patterns or trends among them
C. separating or organizing them into subgroups




Answers to the review questions:
1. A
2. C

From the game:

Remember, even if you're wrong, give yourself a point for coming up with a believable definition! Here are the definitions that Urban Dictionary lists.

1. Pretendance: "signing into an online meeting in order to appear in attendance and engaged, when in fact you are doing other things."

2. Broligarch: "an ultra-wealthy man who uses his fortune and status to sway government policies, political agendas, and cultural narratives."

3. Scamwich: "a luxurious-looking 'filling packed' sandwich... [which] is actually structured [with] fillings all packed up onto the 'show-side' with little to no filling in the back."


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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