nanotechnology

noun

nano·​tech·​nol·​o·​gy ˌna-nō-tek-ˈnä-lə-jē 

: the manipulation of materials on an atomic or molecular scale especially to build microscopic devices (such as robots)

Placing atoms as though they were bricks, nanotechnology will give us complete control over the structure of matter, allowing us to build any substance or structure permitted by the laws of nature.

—Science News

Once the province of science fiction, nanotechnology, the science of assembling materials one atom at a time, is now the rage among Silicon Valley investors.

—Karen Breslau

nanotechnological

ˌna-nō-ˌtek-nə-ˈlä-ji-kəl 

adjective

nanotechnologist

ˌna-nō-tek-ˈnä-lə-jist 

noun

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Nanotechnology, or nanotech for short, deals with matter at a level that most of us find hard to imagine, since it involves objects with dimensions of 100 billionths of a meter (1/800th of the thickness of a human hair) or less. The chemical and physical properties of materials often change greatly at this scale. Nanotechnology is already being used in automobile tires, land-mine detectors, and computer disk drives. Nanomedicine is a particularly exciting field: Imagine particles the size of a blood cell that could be released into the bloodstream to form into tiny robots and attack cancer cells, or "machines" the size of a molecule that could actually repair the damaged interiors of individual cells.

Examples of nanotechnology in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing. —Klaus Schwab, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2015

Before taking over the neuroscience beat, Stix, as Scientific American's special projects editor, oversaw the magazine's annual single-topic special issues, conceiving of and producing issues on Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, climate change and nanotechnology. —Gary Stix, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2024

The development of micro-bots and nanotechnology powered by AI algorithms opens up a world of opportunities previously confined to the realm of science fiction. —Bernard Marr, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2024

In other words, all of that and more contributes to some of the very exciting work that people are doing on nanotechnology today. —John Werner, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

nanotechnology

noun

nano·​tech·​nol·​o·​gy

ˌnan-ō-tek-ˈnäl-ə-jē

: the art of using and controlling materials on an atomic or molecular scale especially in order to create microscopic devices