substrate

noun

sub·strate | \ ˈsəb-ˌstrāt

Definition of substrate

1 : substratum

2 : the base on which an organism lives the soil is the substrate of most seed plants

3 : a substance acted upon (as by an enzyme)

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Did You Know?

With its Latin prefix sub-, "below", substrate obviously refers to a layer under something else. Rock may serve as the substrate for the coral in a coral reef. Tiny wafers of silicon (or another semiconductor) serve as the substrate for computer chips. Substrate may also mean subsoil—that is, the layer under the topsoil, lacking in organic matter or humus. Substrate is part of the vocabulary of various other sciences, including chemistry and biology. But although it's mostly a scientific term, writers may also use it to mean simply "foundation"—for instance, when observing that reading is the substrate on which most other learning is based.

Examples of substrate in a Sentence

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The app can also control the temperature, humidity and ventilation, and the hydroponic system that supplies the plants, growing on various non-soil substrates, with water and nutrients. — The Economist, "New ways to make vertical farming stack up," 29 Aug. 2019 Those threads use an amino acid group called dihydroxyphenylalanine, or DOPA, which uses a few chemistry tricks, like hydrogen bonding, that allows it to form a super-tight bond with all sorts of substrates. — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, "Mussels’ Sticky Threads Could Inspire Ways to Clean Up Oil Spills, Purify Water and More," 13 July 2019 Netthat the compound, made by using epoxy as a base and incorporating mango leaf extracts in a substrate of amorphous silica, achieved 99% inhibition of corrosion in commercial steel when immersed in a saline medium to mimic seawater. — Ranjit Devraj, Quartz India, "Mango leaves: Indian scientists’ solution to a $2.5 trillion global shipping problem," 24 July 2019 The work also paints a picture of the neural substrate underlying expectation in the brain. — Quanta Magazine, "Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next," 2 May 2019 Imagine two network nodes, Alice and Bob, each made of some isolated bit of matter (the most obvious and reliable substrate for encoding and storing quantum states). — Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, "The Quantum Internet Is Emerging, One Experiment at a Time," 19 June 2019 And eventually, the trick of infusing them into living substrates becomes something smart teens can handle. — Rob Reid, Ars Technica, "In the not-so-distant future, “synbio” could lead to global catastrophe—maybe," 18 June 2019 The department says the larval lamprey live in freshwater for a few years burrowed in sandy substrate. — USA TODAY, "Black Hills yaks, serious senioritis on campus, Pony Express: News from around our 50 states," 10 June 2019 Its physical substrate, the thalamo-cortical complex that provides consciousness with its highly elaborate content, begins to be in place between the 24th and 28th week of gestation. — Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, "Why the Abortion Movie Unplanned Is Factually Incorrect," 16 Apr. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'substrate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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More Definitions for substrate

substrate

noun

sub·strate | \ ˈsəb-ˌstrāt

Medical Definition of substrate

1 : substratum sense 1

2 : the base on which an organism lives

3 : a substance acted upon (as by an enzyme)

substrate

Definition of substrate

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Examples of substrate in a Sentence

First Known Use of substrate

History and Etymology for substrate

Medical Definition of substrate

substrate

Definition of substrate

Did You Know?

Examples of substrate in a Sentence

First Known Use of substrate

History and Etymology for substrate

Medical Definition of substrate

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