semiconductor

1. (physics) A substance with electrical properties intermediate between a good conductor and a good insulator.Examples: "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."

2. (business, metonymic) Ellipsis of semiconductor device.Examples: "Near-synonyms: chip, microchip, integrated circuit"; "The company supplies semiconductors to laptop, server, and smartphone manufacturers."; "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."abbreviationalt-ofellipsismetonymically