semiconductor

Definition

A substance with electrical properties intermediate between a good conductor and a good insulator.

Etymology

From semi- + conductor.

Example Sentences

• "Holonyms: chip, microchip, integrated circuit"
• "Integrated circuits are made from semiconductors, especially silicon."
• "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."

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