substrate.

1. A material or surface on which another material, process, or organism rests or develops.

2. A substance on which an enzyme acts during a chemical reaction.

3. An earlier language that leaves features in a language that replaces it.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• growth substrate
• underlying substrate

On the page

The roots could not penetrate the compacted substrate.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Singular substrate; plural substrates. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: uncommon.