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

Etymology

Origin of silo

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

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

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

This tension, he said, was compounded by subsequent U.S. intelligence reports alleging that widespread corruption had rendered some of these missiles nonfunctional—including claims of defective silo lids.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

Humor is derived from individual perception, and it’s hard to see much of the world stuck in the blinding blue light of a digital silo.

From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2025

I’m standing atop the scaffolding at the abandoned silo at the Beaverton farm, feeding an endless chain of paper links through the intake window.

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

And the more that people exist in algorithmic silos, the more likely they are to be convinced that they have a claim on things they don’t.

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026

Palantir’s solutions unite data silos within organizations to create a centralized platform for AI agents.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

Where regional authorities have banned harvesting between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm, some silos are now opening overnight.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

The imposing grain silos at Beirut’s port mostly withstood last year’s massive explosion — but now serve as reminders of negligence and destruction.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026

Grain elevators are tall, hollow concrete tubes, like silos.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

These programs are siloed, with no coherent, connecting strategy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026

“Television was reasonably siloed … ABC took a long time deciding because they could see that there was something about it, but in the end they passed.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026

Moskowitz called this view “overly reductive,” arguing that Palantir competes at the operational layer instead of the model layer by organizing siloed enterprise data and embedding AI into workflows.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 18, 2026

There's an argument that those songs should be siloed into a separate chart – in the same way that compilations are excluded from the album countdown.

From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2025

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

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

From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2024

Holistic defense involves more collaboration within defense teams, rather than a strict siloing of roles.

From Slate ● May 1, 2023

And siloing ourselves in our echo chambers distorts everybody's reality.

From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2022

Since the early 2000s, Piper has refused to let her work be included in all-Black shows, arguing that such siloing further marginalizes Black artists.

From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2022

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

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2021

Related Words

• cellar
• granary
• storehouse