semiconductor

English

Etymology

From semi- +‎ conductor.

Noun

semiconductor (plural semiconductors)

2. (physics) A substance with electrical properties intermediate between a good conductor and a good insulator.

   Holonyms: chip, microchip, integrated circuit

   Integrated circuits are made from semiconductors, especially silicon.

   • 1876, Adolphe Ganot, Natural Philosophy for General Readers and Young Persons, page 422:

     In this sense we are to understand the following table in which bodies are classed as conductors, semiconductors, and nonconductors; those bodies being conveniently designated as conductors which, when applied to an electroscope charged with either kind of electricity discharge it almost instantaneously; semiconductors being those which discharge it in a short but measurable time, a few seconds, for instance; while nonconductors effect no discharge even, in the course of a minute.

   • 1901, George W. Jacoby, A System of Physiologic Therapeutics: Electrotherapy:

     The following table of conductors may therefore be used in inverse order as a table of resistances, the good conductors being bodies of slight resistance, the semiconductors being bodies of great resistance, and the insulators being bodies of so great resistance that they almost effectually oppose the passage of any current.

4. (business, metonymically) Ellipsis of semiconductor device.

   Near-synonyms: chip, microchip, integrated circuit

   The company supplies semiconductors to laptop, server, and smartphone manufacturers.

   • 2024 April 10, Louis Goss, “Chip maker TSMC posts sharpest increase in sales since 2022 following AI boom”, in MarketWatch‎^[1], retrieved 2024-05-08:

     Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Wednesday said its revenues increased more sharply in the first quarter of 2024 than in any previous quarter since 2022 following a surge in demand for microchips driven by the artificial-intelligence boom. TSMC, which supplies semiconductors to top companies including Apple and Nvidia, posted a 16.5% increase in its first-quarter sales to NT$592.64 billion ($18.54 billion), in a sign the global chip market has now started recovering from the major slump that hit sales in 2023.

Derived terms

• intrinsic semiconductor
• semiconductor heterostructure
• semiconductor memory

Related terms

• semiconductance
• semiconducting
• semiconduction
• semiconductive
• semiconductivity

 

Translations

substance with electrical properties between conductor and insulator

• Albanian: gjysmëpërcjellës (sq)
• Arabic: شِبْه مُوَصِّل m (šibh muwaṣṣil)
• Armenian: կիսահաղորդիչ (hy) (kisahaġordičʻ)
• Azerbaijani: yarımkeçirici
• Basque: erdieroale
• Belarusian: паўправадні́к m (paŭpravadník)
• Bulgarian: полупрово́дник m (poluprovódnik)
• Catalan: semiconductor m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 半導體／半导体 (zh) (bàndǎotǐ)

• Czech: polovodič (cs) m
• Danish: halvleder (da) c
• Dutch: halfgeleider (nl) m
• Esperanto: duonkonduktaĵo, semikonduktaĵo, duonkonduktanto
• Estonian: pooljuht (et)
• Finnish: puolijohde (fi)
• French: semiconducteur (fr) m
• Georgian: ნახევარგამტარი (naxevargamṭari)
• German: Halbleiter (de) m
• Greek: ημιαγωγός (el) m (imiagogós)
• Hungarian: félvezető (hu)
• Icelandic: hálfleiðari m
• Irish: leathsheoltóir m
• Italian: semiconduttore (it) m
• Japanese: 半導体 (ja) (はんどうたい, handōtai)
• Kazakh: шалаөткізгіш (şalaötkızgış)
• Khmer: អង្គធាតុកន្លះចម្លង, សឺមីកុងឌុចទ័រ
• Korean: 반도체(半導體) (ko) (bandoche)
• Latvian: pusvadītājs m
• Lithuanian: puslaidininkis m
• Macedonian: полуспроводник m (polusprovodnik)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: halvleder m

• Persian: نیم‌رسانا (nim-resânâ)
• Polish: półprzewodnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: semicondutor (pt) m
• Romanian: semiconductor (ro) n
• Russian: полупроводни́к (ru) m (poluprovodník)
• Scottish Gaelic: fo-ghiùlanair m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: полуво̀дӣч m

  Roman: poluvòdīč (sh) m

• Slovak: polovodič m
• Slovene: polprevodnik m
• Spanish: semiconductor (es) m
• Swedish: halvledare (sv) c
• Tagalog: malasaluyan
• Tajik: нимноқил (nimnoqil)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: yarı iletken (tr)
• Ukrainian: напівпровідни́к m (napivprovidnýk)
• Uzbek: yarimoʻtkazgich
• Vietnamese: chất bán dẫn (vi)
• Welsh: lled-ddargludydd m

See also

• germanium
• silicium
• silicon

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French semi-conducteur.

Noun

semiconductor n (plural semiconductoare)

1. (physics) semiconductor

Declension

Declension of semiconductor

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	semiconductor		semiconductoare	semiconductori	semiconductoare
	definite	semiconductorul		semiconductoarea	semiconductorii	semiconductoarele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	semiconductor		semiconductoare	semiconductori	semiconductoare
	definite	semiconductorului		semiconductoarei	semiconductorilor	semiconductoarelor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /semikonduɡˈtoɾ/ [se.mi.kõn̪.d̪uɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: se‧mi‧con‧duc‧tor

Adjective

semiconductor (feminine semiconductora, masculine plural semiconductores, feminine plural semiconductoras)

1. semiconducting

Noun

semiconductor m (plural semiconductores)

1. (physics) semiconductor

Further reading

• “semiconductor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28