Definition of "atomic" in English

adjective

1. (physics, chemistry) Of or relating to atoms; composed of atoms; monatomic.

   • A stream of atomic hydrogen is emitted.

2. Employing or relating to nuclear energy or processes.

   • atomic energy; atomic bombs
   • Some nutjob once built a small atomic pile in his back yard.

3. Infinitesimally small.

   • The hairs on a dust mite 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.

noun

1. (computing) An atomic operation.