layer

English Online Dictionary. What means layer‎? What does layer mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɛə/, (spelling pronunciation) /ˈleɪ.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪ.ɚ/, /lɛɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ), -eɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: lair (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

Appears at first glance to be from Middle English leyer, leyare (“a layer of stones or bricks”), equivalent to lay +‎ -er. In which case, ultimately identical to the other word below that is also spelt layer.

However, this word layer (referring to a thickness of a material covering a surface) has long been argued to be from a respelling of an obsolete sense of the word lair that was once used by farmers, which had to do with soil. The connecting sense between the usual meaning of lair and the specialised farming meaning was: an area where cows typically rest, the ground being fertilised by their waste. Related to lie, ledger.

Noun

layer (plural layers)

1. A single thickness of some material covering a surface.
   1. An item of clothing worn under or over another.

2. A (usually) horizontal deposit; a stratum.

3. One of the items in a hierarchy.
4. (computer graphics, by analogy to a stack of transparencies) One in a stack of (initially transparent) drawing surfaces that comprise an image; used to keep elements of an image separate so that they can be modified independently from one another.
5. (networking) One of the seven network switch pieces in the Open Systems Interconnection model: application, presentation, session, transport, network, data link, and physical.
6. (computing) An alternative keymap accessed through a modifier key or toggle.

Synonyms

• (single thickness): lay (obsolete)
• (stratum): stratum

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

layer (third-person singular simple present layers, present participle layering, simple past and past participle layered)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To cut or divide into layers.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To arrange in layers.

Translations

Etymology 2

From lay +‎ -er.

Noun

layer (plural layers)

1. A person who lays anything, such as tiles or a wager.
2. A mature female bird, insect, etc. that is able to lay eggs.

3. A hen kept to lay eggs; a breed of chicken bred to maximize laying output.

   Coordinate terms: broiler, fryer, roaster, stewer

4. A shoot of a plant, laid underground for growth.

Derived terms

• minelayer
• net layer
• tracklayer

Translations

Further reading

• “layer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “layer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Arely, Arley, Early, Leary, Raley, Rayle, early, leary, re-lay, relay

French

Etymology

Old French layer, Frankish *lākan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛ.je/ ~ /le.je/

Verb

layer

1. (forestry, transitive) to trail a path in a forest

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Derived terms

• laie
• layeur

Further reading

• “layer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.