stratify

verb strat·i·fy \ ˈstra-tə-ˌfī \

Updated on: 18 Apr 2018

Definition of stratify

stratified; stratifying

transitive verb

1 : to form, deposit, or arrange in strata

2 a : to divide or arrange into classes, castes, or social strata

b : to divide into a series of graded statuses

intransitive verb

: to become arranged in strata

See stratify defined for kids

Recent Examples of stratify from the Web

The results of the study were also stratified by ethnicity, gender, age and pain diagnosis.

— mark lieber, CNN, "Drop in new opioid prescriptions to benzodiazepine patients could reduce overdoses, study suggests," 13 Apr. 2018
This first stage gradually phased out as hunter-gatherer groups gave way to societies stratified into rulers and subjects.

— Longreads, "The Way We Treat Our Pets Is More Paleolithic Than Medieval," 22 Mar. 2018
As in Chile, an all-private system could just stratify society into something resembling the status quo, whereby the best and most elite schools would cost far more than the tuition vouchers provided.

— julie halpert, The Atlantic, "What If America Didn't Have Public Schools?," 4 Mar. 2018
This introduces biases in the selection of interviewees that can be mitigated by post-stratifying the results to give the underrepresented groups in the study a weight similar to that in the general population.

— Bloomberg.com, "Mexican Election Coverage," 12 Feb. 2018
Kaushal said lakes in the Midwest tend to stratify during the summer and then mix when the weather gets cooler.

— emily bamforth, cleveland.com, "American rivers are becoming saltier, more alkaline. How does the Cuyahoga River compare?," 10 Jan. 2018
The goal of the study will be to go beyond symptoms like headache, dizziness or confusion, which are often used to classify brain injuries today, and begin to stratify damage based on the type and extent of physical damage in the brain.

— stacey burling, Philly.com, "Penn, CHOP, Moss Rehab, Cheney get $4 million to study traumatic brain injury," 15 Dec. 2017
When people are stratified by money and not patronage, something new emerges: middle-class anxiety.

— joshua mitchell, National Review, "The Identity-Politics Death Grip," 26 Oct. 2017
Today, racial inequality has continued to stratify.

— clint smith, New Republic, "Affirmative Action as Reparations," 5 Sep. 2017

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