atomic

[ uh-tom-ik ]

/ əˈtɒm ɪk /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR atomic ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of, pertaining to, resulting from, or using atoms, atomic energy, or atomic bombs: an atomic explosion.

propelled or driven by atomic energy: an atomic submarine.

Chemistry. existing as free, uncombined atoms.

extremely minute.

Nearby words

Also a·tom·i·cal.

Origin of atomic

First recorded in 1670–80; atom + -ic

Related formsa·tom·i·cal·ly, adverbnon·a·tom·ic, adjectivenon·a·tom·i·cal, adjectivenon·a·tom·i·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for atomic

Producing one H-bomb would have diverted enough resources to produce 80 atomic warheads.
I Saw Nuclear Armageddon Sitting on My Desk|Clive Irving|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Transcripts from hearings held by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954 have recently been declassified and studied by scholars.
I Saw Nuclear Armageddon Sitting on My Desk|Clive Irving|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In 1957 the U.S. Army first fielded artillery able to fire shells with atomic warheads.
I Saw Nuclear Armageddon Sitting on My Desk|Clive Irving|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
One of these critics was William Borden, executive director of the congressional joint committee on atomic energy.
I Saw Nuclear Armageddon Sitting on My Desk|Clive Irving|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST

It was a decades-old howitzer Burns called a “multi-ton behemoth” and the atomic shell had a range of only ten miles.
I Saw Nuclear Armageddon Sitting on My Desk|Clive Irving|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Each letter represents a fixed quantity of the element for which it stands, viz., the atomic weight.
Logic|Carveth Read
After a long minute, Stanton said: "What about atomic energy?"
Anything You Can Do ...|Gordon Randall Garrett
Further, it may be linked with another ring, and so give the basis to the combining properties of atomic weights.
Aether and Gravitation|William George Hooper
Once we arrived here we found that a man named Copperd was the prime figure in his country's atomic weapons research.
The Plotters|Alexander Blade
During the war, over ten million American families had been separated, their way of life destroyed by the hell of atomic bombings.
Stopover|William Gerken

British Dictionary definitions for atomic

atomic

/ (əˈtɒmɪk) /

adjective

of, using, or characterized by atomic bombs or atomic energyatomic warfare

of, related to, or comprising atomsatomic hydrogen

extremely small; minute

logic (of a sentence, formula, etc) having no internal structure at the appropriate level of analysis. In predicate calculus, Fa is an atomic sentence and Fx an atomic predicate

Derived Formsatomically, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for atomic

atomic

adj.

1670s as a philosophical term (see atomistic); scientific sense dates from 1811, from atom + -ic. Atomic number is from 1821; atomic mass is from 1848. Atomic energy first recorded 1906 in modern sense (as intra-atomic energy from 1903).

March, 1903, was an historic date for chemistry. It is, also, as we shall show, a date to which, in all probability, the men of the future will often refer as the veritable beginning of the larger powers and energies that they will control. It was in March, 1903, that Curie and Laborde announced the heat-emitting power of radium. [Robert Kennedy Duncan, "The New Knowledge," 1906]

Atomic bomb first recorded 1914 in writings of H.G. Wells, who thought of it as a bomb "that would continue to explode indefinitely."

When you can drop just one atomic bomb and wipe out Paris or Berlin, war will have become monstrous and impossible. [S. Strunsky, "Yale Review," January 1917]

Atomic Age is from 1945. Atomical is from 1640s.