atomic
[uh-tom-ik]
- 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.
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Also a·tom·i·cal.
Origin of atomic
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for atomic
Contemporary Examples
Producing one H-bomb would have diverted enough resources to produce 80 atomic warheads.
Transcripts from hearings held by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954 have recently been declassified and studied by scholars.
In 1957 the U.S. Army first fielded artillery able to fire shells with atomic warheads.
One of these critics was William Borden, executive director of the congressional joint committee on atomic energy.
It was a decades-old howitzer Burns called a “multi-ton behemoth” and the atomic shell had a range of only ten miles.
Historical Examples
The difference is one in the structure of the atomic elements.
The Machinery of the UniverseAmos Emerson Dolbear
It may be here or there, move fast or slow, but its atomic form persists.
The Machinery of the UniverseAmos Emerson Dolbear
One of the atomic pellets had exploded within a few feet of it.
The Martian CabalRoman Frederick Starzl
He wrote: Feudal anachronisms and atomic power, side by side.
Teething RingJames Causey
The others will be provided with ethon lamps, pistols, and atomic grenades.
The Death-Traps of FX-31Sewell Peaslee Wright
atomic
- 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
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for 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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
atomic
[ə-tŏm′ĭk]
- Relating to an atom or to atoms.
- Employing nuclear energy.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.