atomic

atomic [uh-tom-ik] ExamplesWord Origin adjective

1. of, pertaining to, resulting from, or using atoms, atomic energy, or atomic bombs: an atomic explosion.
2. propelled or driven by atomic energy: an atomic submarine.
3. Chemistry. existing as free, uncombined atoms.
4. extremely minute.

Also a·tom·i·cal. Origin of atomic First recorded in 1670–80; atom + -ic Related formsa·tom·i·cal·ly, adverbnon·a·tom·ic, adjectivenon·a·tom·i·cal, adjectivenon·a·tom·i·cal·ly, adverb Examples from the Web for atomical Historical Examples of atomical

Unluckily his temperament was what the atomical philosophers (who can explain every thing by thers and vibrations) call sanguine.

Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe

John Robison

The ancient Democritic or atomical physiology endows inert matter with a motive power.

Amenities of Literature

Isaac Disraeli

Or is it in your atomical corpuscles, 233which form such excellent works without the direction of any natural power or reason?

Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations

Marcus Tullius Cicero

British Dictionary definitions for atomical atomic adjective

1. of, using, or characterized by atomic bombs or atomic energyatomic warfare
2. of, related to, or comprising atomsatomic hydrogen
3. extremely small; minute
4. logic (of a sentence, formula, etc) having no internal structure at the appropriate level of analysis. In predicate calculus, Fa is an atomic sentence and Fx an atomic predicate

Derived Formsatomically, adverb Word Origin and History for atomical atomic adj.

1670s as a philosophical term (see atomistic); scientific sense dates from 1811, from atom + -ic. Atomic number is from 1821; atomic mass is from 1848. Atomic energy first recorded 1906 in modern sense (as intra-atomic energy from 1903).

March, 1903, was an historic date for chemistry. It is, also, as we shall show, a date to which, in all probability, the men of the future will often refer as the veritable beginning of the larger powers and energies that they will control. It was in March, 1903, that Curie and Laborde announced the heat-emitting power of radium. [Robert Kennedy Duncan, “The New Knowledge,” 1906]

Atomic bomb first recorded 1914 in writings of H.G. Wells, who thought of it as a bomb “that would continue to explode indefinitely.”

When you can drop just one atomic bomb and wipe out Paris or Berlin, war will have become monstrous and impossible. [S. Strunsky, “Yale Review,” January 1917]

Atomic Age is from 1945. Atomical is from 1640s.

atomical in Science atomic [ə-tŏm′ĭk]

1. Relating to an atom or to atoms.
2. Employing nuclear energy.