Stratification is the building up of layers of deposits, and can have several variations of meaning:

• Social stratification, is the dividing of a society into levels based on wealth or power.
• Stratification in archaeology are the layers in which objects are found.
• Stratification (botany).
• See stratified sampling for the use of stratification in survey sampling. The term "stratified sampling" is also refers a method of variance reduction in Monte Carlo methods.
• In logic, stratification is a layering of predicate symbols to guarantee unique interpretations and to avoid paradoxical definitions like Russell's paradox.
• Stratification is a separate meaning as applied to manifolds, and singularity theory, of a decomposition into pieces with specified relationships on fitting together.
• In music stratification is a layering of musical texture or the independent operating of more than one parameter simultaneously (see auditory stream).

See also: Destratification