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Silicate vs. Silicon

Silicate and Silicon Definitions

Silicate

Any of numerous compounds containing silicon, oxygen, and one or more metals; a salt of silicic acid.

Silicon

A nonmetallic element occurring extensively in the earth's crust in silica and silicates, having both a brown amorphous and a gray lustrous crystalline allotrope, and used doped or in combination with other materials in glass, semiconducting devices, concrete, brick, refractories, pottery, and silicones. Atomic number 14; atomic weight 28.086; melting point 1,414°C; boiling point 3,265°C; specific gravity 2.33 (25°C); valence 2, 4. See Periodic Table.

Silicate

Any of a large group of minerals, forming over 90 percent of the earth's crust, that consist of SiO2 or SiO4 groupings combined with one or more metals and sometimes hydrogen.

Silicon

A nonmetallic element (symbol Si) with an atomic number of 14 and atomic weight of 28.0855.

Silicate

(inorganic chemistry) Any salt of silica or of one of the silicic acids; any mineral composed of silicates

Silicon

A single atom of this element.
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Silicate

A salt of silicic acid.

Silicon

(slang) computing

Silicate

A salt or ester derived from silicic acid

Silicon

(slang) computer processor

Silicon

Abbreviation of silicon chip

Silicon

A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon. It always occurs combined in nature, and is artificially obtained in the free state, usually as a dark brown amorphous powder, or as a dark crystalline substance with a meetallic luster. Its oxide is silica, or common quartz, and in this form, or as silicates, it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the earth's crust. Silicon is characteristically the element of the mineral kingdom, as carbon is of the organic world. Symbol Si. Atomic weight 28. Called also silicium.
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Silicon

A tetravalent nonmetallic element; next to oxygen it is the most abundant element in the earth's crust; occurs in clay and feldspar and granite and quartz and sand; used as a semiconductor in transistors

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