Wafer Meaning
/ˈweɪ̯fəː/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA light, thin, flat biscuit/cookie.
nounA thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread used in communion.
Sentence Examples
The parson gave the communion wafer to the dying person.
Ice cream cones are made of wafer.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The priest placed a small ____ of bread on the person's tongue during communion.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The scientist used a thin silicon ____ to create the new and advanced computer chip for the project today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English wafre, from Anglo-Norman wafre, waufre (Old French gaufre), from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Low German wāfel, Middle Dutch wafel (“honeycomb”), West Flemish wafer. See also waffle.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it."
— 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 78:
"The house supplied him with a wafer for his present purpose, with which, having sealed his letter, he returned hastily towards the brook side, in order to search for the things which he had there lost."
— 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973 edition, page 202:
"[T]he beginning of de Barral's end became manifest to the public in the shape of a half-sheet of note-paper wafered by the four corners on the closed door […]."
— 1913, Joseph Conrad, Chance, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, page 81:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The priest placed a small ____ of bread on the person's tongue during communion.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The scientist used a thin silicon ____ to create the new and advanced computer chip for the project today.