Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Silicon \Sil"i*con\, n. [See {Silica}.] (Chem.)
   A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon. It always occurs
   combined in nature, and is artificially obtained in the free
   state, usually as a dark brown amorphous powder, or as a dark
   crystalline substance with a meetallic luster. Its oxide is
   silica, or common quartz, and in this form, or as silicates,
   it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the
   earth's crust. Silicon is characteristically the element of
   the mineral kingdom, as carbon is of the organic world.
   Symbol Si. Atomic weight 28. Called also {silicium}.

Source : WordNet®

silicon
     n : a tetravalent nonmetallic element; next to oxygen it is the
         most abundant element in the earth's crust; occurs in
         clay and feldspar and granite and quartz and sand; used
         as a semiconductor in transistors [syn: {Si}, {atomic
         number 14}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

silicon
     
        1.  The material used as the base (or
        "substrate") for most {integrated circuit}s.
     
        2.  {Hardware}, especially {integrated circuit}s or
        {microprocessor}-based computer systems (compare {iron}).
     
        Contrast: {software}.  See also {sandbender}.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1996-05-28)