Silicon Valley

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noun

the area in northern California, southwest of San Francisco in the Santa Clara valley region, where many of the high-technology design and manufacturing companies in the semiconductor industry are concentrated.

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Origin of Silicon Valley

So called from the silicon wafers employed in semiconductor devices

Words nearby Silicon Valley

Silicon Glen, siliconized, silicon rectifier, silicon tetrachloride, silicon tetrafluoride, Silicon Valley, silicoproteinosis, silicosiderosis, silicosis, silicotuberculosis, silicula

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use Silicon Valley in a sentence

John Markoff argues that the rise of tech hubs like Silicon Valley owes much more to serendipity than their boosters like to admit.
What progress means|Katie McLean|February 24, 2021|MIT Technology Review
A well-funded Silicon Valley startup now says it has a battery that will make electric vehicles far more palatable for the mass consumer.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2021|David Rotman|February 24, 2021|MIT Technology Review
Others were all too conscious of Silicon Valley’s checkered reputation when it came to privacy.
Digital contact tracing brought tech rivals together while the pandemic kept us apart|Lindsay Muscato|February 24, 2021|MIT Technology Review
Silicon Valley, in many ways, owes its very existence to the mystique that first emerged in the 1970s, creating a magnetic force that has continuously pulled the best and the brightest from all over the world.
Why it’s a mistake to bet against Silicon Valley|Katie McLean|February 24, 2021|MIT Technology Review

Since around the mid-2000s—shortly after our first TR10 list—growth in TFP has been sluggish and disappointing, especially given the flood of new technologies coming from places like Silicon Valley.
Are you ready to be a techno-optimist again?|Katie McLean|February 24, 2021|MIT Technology Review
But the people from Valley Stream had such a thick New York accent that was all around me.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The region is marketed for visitors as “Aryan Valley,” and many citizens have taken to tacking on “Aryan” to their last names.
The Himalayas’ Hidden Aryans|Nina Strochlic|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Time was suspended as the world watched and waited for news about the young, brave girl from the Swat Valley.
Promoting Girls’ Education Isn’t Enough: Malala Can Do More|Paula Kweskin|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A brilliant Silicon Valley entrepreneur may have found a way to get dark money out of politics without changing any laws.
How to Fight Corruption With Game Theory|Mark McKinnon|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Greer is a young, entrepreneurial, poker-loving Texan who ended up in Silicon Valley.
How to Fight Corruption With Game Theory|Mark McKinnon|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
San Antonio de Bexar lies in a fertile and well-irrigated valley, stretching westward from the river Salado.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
When it cleared, the valley was a solid expanse of white, and the stars shone out as if in an Arctic sky.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
At the foot of the pass, the valley widened a little, though still with steep, snow-capped cliffs crowding it on either side.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
It was a sad day for Ramona and Alessandro when the kindly Hyers pulled up their tent-stakes and left the valley.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
For an Indian to sell a horse and wagon in the San Jacinto valley was not an easy thing, unless he would give them away.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson

British Dictionary definitions for Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

noun

an industrial strip in W California, extending S of San Francisco, in which the US information technology industry is concentrated

any area in which industries associated with information technology are concentrated

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

Cultural definitions for Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

A region on the San Francisco Peninsula in California where the miniaturized electronics industry is centered, so called because most of the devices built there are made of semiconductors such as silicon.

notes for Silicon Valley

The term is often used as a catchword to describe the development of high-tech industry (see also high-tech): “If we can attract this corporation to our town, we could become another Silicon Valley.”