silo

American  

[sahy-loh] / ˈsaɪ loʊ /

noun

• silos
  plural

1. a structure, typically cylindrical, in which fodder or forage is kept.

   The dairy farm's two biggest buildings were the barn and the silo full of feed for the cows.

2. a pit or underground space for storing grain, green feeds, etc.

3. Military. an underground installation constructed of concrete and steel, designed to house a ballistic missile and the equipment for firing it.

4. a group, unit, enterprise, etc., that is isolated from others or functions independently, typically viewed as not deriving the benefits of interrelationships or collaboration.

   Fundraising department silos happen when different teams don't share their ideas and plans.

5. information silo, data silo. Computers. an unintegrated data repository that cannot share its stored data with other systems, subsystems, or applications.

   When an organization deploys a stand-alone solution to improve operations, it risks creating a data silo that may present difficulties when trying to scale throughout the enterprise.

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verb (used with object)

siloed, siloing

1. to put into or preserve in a silo, as fodder, grain, or missiles.

2. to separate or isolate (a group, unit, enterprise, etc.) from others.

   We Americans are now more sheltered and siloed in our sources of news than ever before.

silo British  

/ ˈsaɪləʊ /

noun

1. a pit, trench, horizontal container, or tower, often cylindrical in shape, in which silage is made and stored

2. a strengthened underground position in which missile systems are sited for protection against attack

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• silos
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of silo

First recorded in 1825–35; from Spanish: “place for storing grain, hay, etc.,” originally, “subterranean”; further origin uncertain

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Explanation

A silo is a cylindrical tower used for bulk storage, like grain silos that stand tall near farms. Another kind of silo is harder to see — military silos are underground. Farming and war are pretty different, but they both involve silos. You may have seen a silo if you've ever visited a farm. A silo is a tall tower with a cylindrical (rounded) shape. The silo holds anything the farmer needs to store in bulk, especially feed for the animals. Other, non-farm silos hold material such as cement or coal. The military type of silo holds something more dangerous: missiles. These silos store the missiles underground until they’re fired.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

silo silos siloed siloing

To test this idea, the researchers created a computer model that treats floating ice somewhat like grains moving through a silo.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026

But those timings mean he cannot get the cereal straight to a local silo because they are not open then.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

Salesforce’s customer relationship management data only represent an isolated silo of its customers’ total footprint, Goldberg said.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

Vocational programs were long seen as places to silo academic underperformers into blue-collar work, administrators note.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025

Without grain in the silo, jars of olive oil in the cellar, cheese in the pantry and sausages hanging from the rafters, they would starve in bad years.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

The ranch is nestled in a corner of Nebraska that's home to rolling green hills under sweeping Midwestern skies, the landscape dotted with grain silos and feedlots alongside fields and fields of bovines.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Bates saw silos and some finger pointing when he arrived.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Both Irvine and Carmel Valley are silos from the problems of the outside world, places where everything might seem perfect, even when it isn’t, her brother said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

“People get out of their silos and live the way people used to live, which was more intergenerationally,” Steinig said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

I went back down the steps and walked across their flat dirt yard, past several outbuildings and the huge grain silos, to the first of four long chicken houses.

From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings

"I think within the platforms those departments are very siloed - so what we would love is for those conversations to be much more holistic."

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

The report also highlighted a "siloed way of working" described by some families between the bereavement service, mortuary and funeral directors.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

“Social-connection policy cannot be siloed, it must be woven into the fabric of how government and communities serve people.”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 19, 2026

Chinese companies, by contrast, are following a state-sanctioned strategy focused on integrating AI into siloed industries and systems, training models to improve individual tasks and accelerate growth in a more tailored approach.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

When the refuse has been siloed for eight months, and 12 per cent. of the animal's weight is used, there will follow a slight daily increase in weight.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 832, December 12, 1891 by Various

A two-year technical program runs the risk of siloing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

But over the last decade it’s become even lonelier, with algorithms and vertical video platforms like TikTok siloing users into consumption over interaction.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

"One thing we often talk about is not siloing HIV and exceptionalising it," he said.

From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2024

Parents are siloing themselves with like-minded friends, which reinforces their thinking.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2021

Having the awards themselves on Paramount+ also testifies to the siloing of audiences.

From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2021

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Related Words

• cellar
• granary
• storehouse

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