silicon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14, a hard, brittle semiconductor abundant in rocks as silica and silicates and widely used in electronic devices

   The chip manufacturer grew a crystal of ultrapure silicon for semiconductor wafers.

Coined as a modification of silicium, from Latin silex or silicis ("flint"), with the ending -on modeled on names such as carbon. Thomas Thomson proposed silicon in the early nineteenth century; Jons Jacob Berzelius isolated the element in 1824.

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