SILICON

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does silicon mean? 

• SILICON (noun)
  The noun SILICON has 1 sense:

1. 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

  Familiarity information: SILICON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SILICON (noun)

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

atomic number 14; silicon; Si

Hypernyms ("silicon" is a kind of...):

chemical element; element (any of the more than 100 known substances (of which 92 occur naturally) that cannot be separated into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute all matter)

semiconducting material; semiconductor (a substance as germanium or silicon whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator; its conductivity increases with temperature and in the presence of impurities)

Holonyms ("silicon" is a substance of...):

quartz (a hard glossy mineral consisting of silicon dioxide in crystal form; present in most rocks (especially sandstone and granite); yellow sand is quartz with iron oxide impurities)

clay (a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired)

feldspar; felspar (any of a group of hard crystalline minerals that consist of aluminum silicates of potassium or sodium or calcium or barium)

granite (plutonic igneous rock having visibly crystalline texture; generally composed of feldspar and mica and quartz)

sand (a loose material consisting of grains of rock or coral)

silicone; silicone polymer (any of a large class of siloxanes that are unusually stable over a wide range of temperatures; used in lubricants and adhesives and coatings and synthetic rubber and electrical insulation)