1. Lying prone or stretched out with the face downward, e.g., in worship or submission
2. Stretched out in a horizontal position, often because of illness or injury.
3. Drained of physical strength or incapacitated by overexertion or powerful emotion.
4. In botany, used to describe a plant that grows or trails along the ground.

See stratum.

1. Used to describe a rock formation that is made up of thin layers.
2. Arranged in thin layers.

1. The formation of layers in sedimentary rocks through biological, chemical, or physical changes in the sediments forming them.
2. The formation of layers, castes, classes, or other types of strata. 3.A situation or condition where something is arranged in several strata.
4. A layered arrangement or appearance of successive rock strata.
5. The storing of seeds in a chilled moist environment or material in order to induce germination or to preserve them.
6. In hydrology, the arrangement of water masses in a lake or other body of water into two or more horizontal layers having different characteristics.
7. The formation of layers in snow, ice, or firn as a result of snow sedimentation or other processes [a "firn" is a loose, permeable, granular material that is over a year old, and which is transitional between snow and glacier ice].

1. In geology, formed, arranged, or laid down in layers or strata.
2. In statistics, of a population, divided into parts on the basis of features such as age or geographical location.

1. Composed of layers, or with a layered appearance or arrangement.
2. Forming or formed as a layer.
3. Like or having the form of a stratus cloud.
4. In meteorology, of a cloud, having a predominantly horizontal development; the opposite of cumuliform.

In meteorology, a cloud species characterized by an extensive horizontal layer or series of layers, either continuous or noncontinuous; the most common form for the altocumulus and stratocumulus genera, and occasionally found in cirrocumlus.

1. To form something into a layer or layers, or become formed into a layer or layers.
2. To form or be formed into castes, classes, or other groups based on status.
3. The storing of seeds in a chilled moist environment or material in order to induce germination or to preserve them.
4. In geology, to form layers or strata.

1. The study of the origin, composition, and development of rock strata.
2. A section cut vertically through the earth showing its different layers and allowing artefacts to be dated according to the layers in which they are found.
3. The way in which rock strata are arranged, and the chronology of their formation.
4. In geology, a branch of geology that is concerned with the systemized study, description, and classification of stratified rocks, including their origins, composition, characteristics, distribution, and correlation with one another.

In geology, a geologist who specializes in the study of stratigraphy.

In geology, the part of the earth's crust that contains stratified rocks.

A cloud resembling cirro-stratus, but more compact in structure.

1. In meteorology, a principal cloud classification, characterized by gray or white, usually stratiform layers that nearly always have dark patches and a nonfibrous aspect; usually arranged in orderly groups, lines, or waves, and composed of small water droplets, sometimes accompanied by larger droplets, soft hail, and (rarely) snowflakes.
2. A cloud formation in a low-lying extensive layer with large dark round or rolling masses.

The boundary layer between the stratosphere and the mesosphere, at around 30 miles/50 km above the Earth's surface

A telescope that operates by remote control and is lifted by balloon to high altitudes so as to reduce the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the observations.

1. The region of the Earth's atmosphere between the troposphere and mesosphere, from 6 miles/10 km to 30 miles/50 km above the Earth's surface. It has no clouds and is marked by gradual temperature increases.
2. In former use, it referred to all of the atmosphere above the troposphere.
3. A very high or the highest level or position.
4. The nearly uniform cold ocean water masses in high latitudes and near-bottom waters of middle and low latitudes; ocean water below the thermocline.

In geology, the sequence of strata that was originally described for a given location, and that serves as a standard against which other parts of the stratigraphic unit are compared.

A reference to clouds.

A volcano consisting of layers of lava alternating with ash or cinder.

1. Any of several parallel layers or levels of something.
2. A layer of the atmosphere or the sea.
3. In biology, a layer of living cells; or a layer, i.e., a sheetlike mass of substance of nearly uniform thickness, especially when the layer is one of several associated layers, as in tissue.
4. A horizontal layer of vegetation within a stratified plant community.
5. A social class or level of society consisting of people of similar cultural, economic, or educational status.
6. A layer or level within an ordered system.

1. A low-lying flat gray cloud formation.
2. In meteorology, a principal cloud genus characterized by a gray layer having a relatively uniform base; often occurring in the form of ragged patches or fragments (stratus fractus) and usually composed of fairly widely dispersed water droplets; similar to stratocumulus, but lower and lacking the latter's uniform relief.

The lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere, at a height of about 12 miles/20 km above the Earth.

1. An underlying base, layer, or element.
2. In agriculture, subsoil.
3. In geology, bedrock.
4. In biology, the non-living material or base on which an organism lives or grows.