silicon

plural silicons

1. uncountableusuallychemistryA nonmetallic element (symbol Si) with an atomic number of 14 and atomic weight of 28.0855.

   His idea is to stand billions of ultrafine wire loops around the edge of a silicon chip — hence the name racetrack — and use electric current to slide infinitesimally small magnets up and down along each of the wires to be read and written as digital ones and zeros.

   2007 September 11, John Markoff, “Redefining the Architecture of Memory”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020

   1 more example

   The isolated disordered regions and the amorphous layer have widely different anneal behavior. In the case of germanium and silicon, the isolated disordered regions anneal at moderate temperatures of approximately 200° and 300° C, respectively. The amorphous layers also anneal in a characteristic fashion, but at appreciably higher temperatures, i.e., at approximately 600° C in silicon and 400° C in germanium.

   1970, James W[alter] Mayer, Lennart Eriksson, John A[rthur] Davies, “General Features of Ion Implantation”, in Ion Implantation in Semiconductors: Silicon and Germanium, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press, →OCLC, page 5

   Synonyms: silicium, silicum

   1. countableusuallychemistryA single atom of this element.

      Synonyms: silicium, silicum

1. slanguncountableComputing.
2. slanguncountableA computer processor.
3. abbreviationuncountableAbbreviation of silicon chip.