Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The region of the atmosphere above the troposphere and below the mesosphere.
  • noun An extremely high or the highest point or degree on a ranked scale.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology, obsolete Collectively, those layers of the Earth’s crust which primarily comprise stratified deposits.
  • noun meteorology The region of the uppermost atmosphere where temperature increases along with the altitude due to the absorption of solar ultraviolet radiation by ozone. The stratosphere extends from the tropopause (10–15 kilometers) to approximately 50 kilometers, where it is succeeded by the mesosphere.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the atmospheric layer between the troposphere and the mesosphere

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French stratosphère : Latin strātus, a spreading out; see stratus + -sphère, sphere (from Old French espere; see sphere).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

strat(um) + -o- + sphere

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Examples

Comments

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  • WIZARD

    Good people of Oz, this is positively the

    finest exhibition ever to be shown --

    (stammers)

    -- yes -- well -- be that as it may -- I,

    your Wizard par ardua ad alta, am about to

    embark upon a hazardous and technically

    unexplainable journey into the outer

    stratosphere.

    June 11, 2010