Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A nonmetallic element occurring extensively in the earth's crust in silica and silicates, having both an amorphous and a crystalline allotrope, and used doped or in combination with other materials in glass, semiconducting devices, concrete, brick, refractories, pottery, and silicones. Atomic number 14; atomic weight 28.086; melting point 1,410°C; boiling point 2,355°C; specific gravity 2.33; valence 4. See Table at element.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Chemical symbol, Si; atomic weight, 28. 19. A non-metallic element which is obtained in three allotropic forms—namely, amorphous, as a dull-brown powder soluble in alkali, which burns when ignited; graphitic, in crystalline leaves having a strong metallic luster and lead-gray color, insoluble in alkali and non-combustible; and crystalline, in octahedral needles having a red luster, and hardness a little less than that of the diamond. Next to oxygen, silicon is the most abundant element in nature. It is found only in combination, chiefly with oxygen, forming silicon dioxid, or silica, which combined with bases makes up the larger part of the rock-crust of the globe. Also called
silicium . - n. Elementary silicon can now he prepared in large qnantity by electrolysis, and in a fused condition. Like its oxid, in cooling from a state of fusion it passes through a plastic stage in which it can be molded into special forms or drawn into threads.
Wiktionary
- n. A nonmetallic element (symbol Si) with an atomic number of 14 and atomic weight of 28.0855.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon. It always occurs combined in nature, and is artificially obtained in the free state, usually as a dark brown amorphous powder, or as a dark crystalline substance with a meetallic luster. Its oxide is silica, or common quartz, and in this form, or as silicates, it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the earth's crust. Silicon is characteristically the element of the mineral kingdom, as carbon is of the organic world. Symbol Si. Atomic weight 28. Called also
silicium .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tetravalent nonmetallic element; next to oxygen it is the most abundant element in the earth's crust; occurs in clay and feldspar and granite and quartz and sand; used as a semiconductor in transistors
Etymologies
- From silica.
Examples
“By the addition of a small quantity of silicon the tensile strength of copper is much increased; a sample of such _silicon bronze_, used for telegraph wires, on analysis was found to consist of 99. 94\% of copper, 0. 03\% of tin, and traces of iron and silicon.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"
“The name silicon comes from the Latin word silicis which means flint.”
“Where the silicon junctions come to the surface of the silicon is a very sensitive area, which we used to expose and had to work awfully hard to keep clean.”
“Are they handing out twitter stock for everyone in silicon valley lately?”
With Twitter Envy, Facebook Adds (Near) Real-time Web Capabilities
“Electronic charge on silicon is simply a more flexible medium, and has no effect on the nature of the right.”
“First, silicon is more important to the miltary these days than steel is.”
Australia's Economic Miracle, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“People with engineering and scientific backgrounds can probably explore this better than I but what if the reason such a relationship exists is because there was a lot of untapped potential in silicon chips?”
Economists Too Linear?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“BT: Were you prompted to write this book by the parallels which you allude to toward the end of the book to recent events in silicon valley and the dot-com mania?”
“These chip companies have to actively manage their rights especially since so much can be copies in silicon today.”
“We'll discover superior intelligence in silicon we build ourselves long before we hear it over a radio telescope, and the only aliens we encounter in centuries to come will be DNAliens we create by injecting engineered double helix strands into ourselves.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘silicon’.
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Topical
The buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 734 more...
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Substancestry
Mysterious and theoretical substances and "stuff" of legend. More emphasis on the ancient, mystical, mythical, folklore, mathematical, and scientific. I won't be listing too many "sci-fi" or comed...
ylem, ichor, aether, ectoplasm, impossible object, quark star, eucharist, pixie dust, eitr, elixir of life, philosopher's stone, alkahest and 119 more...
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Chemical Elements
A list of chemical elements
hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium and 106 more...
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Elementary
Words that can be formed from the official abbreviations of the names of chemical elements, starting with the elements themselves.
arsenic, astatine, bismuth, carbon, copper, iron, neon, silicon, tin, xenon
oroboros Si Dec 1, 2007
oroboros Can be spelled with the Periodic Table of Elements symbols: SiLiCoN Dec 12, 2006