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technology

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek τεχνολογία (tekhnología, “systematic treatment (of grammar)”), from τέχνη (tékhnē, “art”) + -λογία (-logía, “study”). By surface analysis, techno- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

Noun

technology (countable and uncountable, plural technologies)

  1. The combined application of science and art in practical ways in industry, as for example in designing new machines.
    Humankind relies on technology to keep average standard of living higher than it would otherwise be.
    • 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:
      Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
  2. Machines or equipment thus designed.
    We went to the trade show to see the latest technology on display.
  3. (countable) Any useful skill or mechanism that humans have developed or invented (including in prescientific eras).
    the incipient metalworking technology of the Bronze Age
    • 2007 September 11, John Markoff, “Redefining the Architecture of Memory”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 9 November 2020:
      Although it can read data quickly, it is very slow at storing it. That has led the industry on a frantic hunt for alternative storage technologies that might unseat flash.
      Mr. Parkin’s new approach, referred to as “racetrack memory,” could outpace both solid-state flash memory chips as well as computer hard disks, making it a technology that could transform not only the storage business but the entire computing industry. […] Since the tiny magnetic domains have to travel only submolecular distances, it is possible to read and write magnetic regions with different polarization as quickly as a single nanosecond — far faster than existing storage technologies.
  4. (countable, figurative) Any useful trait that has evolved in any organism.
    • 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 317:
      Comb jellies lack the most impressive 'technology' of jellyfish - the nematocyst stinging apparatus which is one of the most deadly weapons and fastest cellular processes in nature.
  5. (uncountable, academic) The study of or a collection of techniques.
  6. (archaic) A discourse or treatise on the arts.

Usage notes

  • In some milieus and contexts, the word "technology" is understood to be limited to digital communications and computing technology, e.g. "technology companies were overvalued during the dotcom bubble."

Derived terms

Collocations

Collocations
  • Adjectives often applied to "technology": assistive, automotive, biological, chemical, domestic, educational, environmental, geospatial, industrial, instructional, medical, microbial, military, nuclear, visual, advanced, sophisticated, high, modern, outdated, obsolete, simple, complex, medieval, ancient, safe, secure, effective, efficient, mechanical, electrical, electronic, emerging, alternative, appropriate, clean, disruptive.

Descendants

  • → Japanese: テクノロジー (tekunorojī)

Translations

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Further reading

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