SILICON DIOXIDE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does silicon dioxide mean? 

• SILICON DIOXIDE (noun)
  The noun SILICON DIOXIDE has 1 sense:

1. a white or colorless vitreous insoluble solid (SiO2); various forms occur widely in the earth's crust as quartz or cristobalite or tridymite or lechatelierite

  Familiarity information: SILICON DIOXIDE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SILICON DIOXIDE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A white or colorless vitreous insoluble solid (SiO2); various forms occur widely in the earth's crust as quartz or cristobalite or tridymite or lechatelierite

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

silica; silicon dioxide; silicon oxide

Hypernyms ("silicon dioxide" is a kind of...):

oxide (any compound of oxygen with another element or a radical)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "silicon dioxide"):

chert (variety of silica containing microcrystalline quartz)

flint (a hard kind of stone; a form of silica more opaque than chalcedony)

silex (a pure form of finely ground silica)

Holonyms ("silicon dioxide" is a substance of...):

cristobalite (a white mineral consisting of silica; found in volcanic rocks)

quartz (a hard glossy mineral consisting of silicon dioxide in crystal form; present in most rocks (especially sandstone and granite); yellow sand is quartz with iron oxide impurities)

crystal; lechatelierite; quartz; quartz glass; vitreous silica (colorless glass made of almost pure silica)

tridymite (a mineral form of silica)

 Context examples 

A glassy or crystalline form of silicon dioxide.

(Crystalline Silica Quartz, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Since the Victorian era, diatoms have been known as the "glass houses of the sea" because of their beautiful cell walls made of silicon dioxide, or glass.

(Algae-killing viruses spur nutrient recycling in oceans, National Science Foundation)

The infrared radiation trapped in the silicon dioxide creates very fast electrical oscillations, about 50 trillion times a second.

(Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A major component of many types of rocks on Earth, silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) is used in industrial sand-and-gravel mixtures to make concrete for sidewalks, roads and buildings.

(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)

Between the aluminum top and the silicon bottom is a very thin layer of silicon dioxide.

(Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Davids' device is made of common and abundant materials, such as aluminum, silicon and silicon dioxide or glass combined in very uncommon ways.

(Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)