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Atom vs Atomy - What's the difference?

atom | atomy |

As nouns the difference between atom and atomy

is that atom is an (l) while atomy is a floating mote or speck of dust or atomy can be (archaic) a skeleton.

atom

English

(wikipedia atom)

Alternative forms

* atomus (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (history of science) A hypothetical particle posited by Greek philosophers as an ultimate and indivisible component of matter.
  • (physics, chemistry) The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:
  • A mote of dust in a sunbeam.
  • The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something. (Now generally interpreted as a figurative use of the physics sense, above.)
  • * 1835 , Sir , Sir (James Clark Ross), Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …'', Volume 1 , pp.284-5
    • Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.
  • A very small amount (of something immaterial); a whit.
  • * 1873 , (Isabella Macdonald Alden) (as "Pansy"), Three People , Western Tract and Book Society (1873), page 325:
    • "I have hardly the faintest atom of hope," answered this honest, earnest man.
  • *
    • those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength
  • (mathematics) A non-zero member of a (Boolean algebra) that is not a union of any other elements.
  • (computing, programming, Lisp) An individual number or symbol, as opposed to a list. A scalar value.

    • Synonyms

    * See also * (small amount) see also .

    Related terms

    * atom smasher * atomic * atomize

    See also

    * element

    References

    * archived version of Wikipedia page "Atom (disambiguation)"

    Anagrams

    * * * * * ----

    atomy

    English

    Etymology 1

    See (atom).

    Noun

    (atomies)
  • A floating mote or speck of dust.
  • * 1595 Gervase Markham, The most Honourable Tragedy of Sir Richard Grenville
  • *:Thicker then in sunne are Atomies ,
  • *:Flew bullets.
  • * 1599 Wm. Shakespeare, As You Like It , 3.v
  • *:That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things
  • *:Who shut their coward gates on atomies
  • *:Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers!

    • Etymology 2

    A metanalysis (false splitting) of anatomy as an atomy .

    Noun

    (atomies)
  • (archaic) a skeleton
  • * 1786 , Dr. Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom , Harrison and Co., page 5,
    • I was now thrown into a violent perturbation of spirit; for I never could behold an atomy without fear and trembling, even when I knew it was no more than a competition of dry bone.
    ----