atomic
AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Adjective (3)
- of or relating to or comprising atoms“atomic structure”“atomic hydrogen”Relating to atom
- (weapons) deriving destructive energy from the release of atomic energy“nuclear war”“nuclear weapons”“atomic bombs”Synonyms: nuclearOpposite conventionalSimilar thermonuclear
- immeasurably smallOpposite large, bigSimilar small, little
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Adjective of, or employing nuclear energy or processes
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: Cf. F. atomique.
1. Of or pertaining to atoms.
2. Extremely minute; tiny.
Atomic bomb, see atom bomb in the vocabulary. — Atomic philosophy, or Doctrine of atoms, a system which, assuming that atoms are endued with gravity and motion, accounted thus for the origin and formation of all things. This philosophy was first broached by Leucippus, was developed by Democritus, and afterward improved by Epicurus, and hence is sometimes denominated the Epicurean philosophy. — Atomic theory, or the Doctrine of definite proportions Chemistry, teaches that chemical combinations take place between the supposed ultimate particles or atoms of bodies, in some simple ratio, as of one to one, two to three, or some other, always expressible in whole numbers. — Atomic weight Chemistry, the weight of the atom of an element as compared with the weight of the atom of hydrogen, taken as a standard.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<jargon> (From Greek "atomos", indivisible) Indivisible; cannot be split up.
For example, an instruction may be said to do several things "atomically", i.e. all the things are done immediately, and there is no chance of the instruction being half-completed or of another being interspersed. Used especially to convey that an operation cannot be interrupted.
An atomic data type has no internal structure visible to the program. It can be represented by a flat domain (all elements are equally defined). Machine integers and Booleans are two examples.
An atomic database transaction is one which is guaranteed to complete successfully or not at all. If an error prevents a partially-performed transaction from proceeding to completion, it must be "backed out" to prevent the database being left in an inconsistent state. [Jargon File]
(2000-04-03)
The Jargon File
1.Indivisible; cannot be split up. For example, an instruction may be said to do several things ‘atomically’, i.e., all the things are done immediately, and there is no chance of the instruction being half-completed or of another being interspersed. Used esp. to convey that an operation cannot be screwed up by interrupts. “This routine locks the file and increments the file's semaphore atomically.”
2.[primarily techspeak] Guaranteed to complete successfully or not at all, usu. refers to database transactions. If an error prevents a partially-performed transaction from proceeding to completion, it must be “ backed out”, as the database must not be left in an inconsistent state.
Computer usage, in either of the above senses, has none of the connotations that ‘atomic’ has in mainstream English (i.e. of particles of matter, nuclear explosions etc.).