English

Adjective

atomic

1. (physics, chemistry) Of or relating to atoms.

   A stream of atomic hydrogen is emitted.‎

2. Of or employing nuclear energy or processes.

   We built a small atomic bomb in the garage.‎

3. Infinitesimally small.

   The hairs on a bedbug are almost atomic.‎

4. Unable to be split or made any smaller.

   A bit is an atomic item of data.‎

5. (computing) Of an operation: guaranteed to complete either fully or not at all while waiting in a pause, and running synchronously when called by multiple asynchronous threads.

   In order to avoid race conditions, this operation has to be atomic.‎

   Whenever possible, use atomic types instead of mutexes.‎

Antonyms

• molecular (1)

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

atomic ‎(plural atomics)

1. (computing) An atomic operation.