"grey goo" meaning in English

See grey goo in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Coined by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} grey goo (uncountable)
  1. A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth (or another planet or moon). Wikipedia link: Engines of Creation, grey goo Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Fictional materials, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Science fiction Synonyms: gray goo [US]
    Sense id: en-grey_goo-en-noun-FLce7QRu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Eschatology

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "grey goo (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Eschatology",
          "orig": "en:Eschatology",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fictional materials",
          "orig": "en:Fictional materials",
          "parents": [
            "Materials",
            "Science fiction",
            "Manufacturing",
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Human activity",
            "Artistic works",
            "Genres",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Human",
            "Culture",
            "All topics",
            "Society",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Nanotechnology",
          "orig": "en:Nanotechnology",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Robotics",
          "orig": "en:Robotics",
          "parents": [
            "Engineering",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Technology",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Science fiction",
          "orig": "en:Science fiction",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Artistic works",
            "Genres",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007 August 24, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 2024-05-11:",
          "text": "\"Our first priority has to be quarantining Xinchub's body, and examining any Yomingians who may have handled it. I don't think we're headed for a grey-goo scenario here, but we'd all feel really bad if the local biosphere got consumed by nanobots after we left.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 October 22, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-7759 - T is for \"Transmission\"” (14:43 from the start), in The Exploring Series, retrieved 2024-05-15:",
          "text": "[…]Through this, they learn more, and manage to reverse-engineer the ion drives of the drone, allowing them to move the station very rapidly towards Earth. On their way, they manage to send signals to multiple Foundation facilities, overriding them and using their fabrication plants to make new nanomachines. At this rate, it won't be long before there's a good old-fashioned grey-goo scenario, and humanity and the Earth are similarly consumed.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth (or another planet or moon)."
      ],
      "id": "en-grey_goo-en-noun-FLce7QRu",
      "links": [
        [
          "hypothetical",
          "hypothetical"
        ],
        [
          "end-of-the-world",
          "end of the world"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "nanotechnology",
          "nanotechnology"
        ],
        [
          "out-of-control",
          "out of control"
        ],
        [
          "self-replicating",
          "self-replicating"
        ],
        [
          "nanobot",
          "nanobot"
        ],
        [
          "life",
          "life"
        ],
        [
          "Earth",
          "Earth"
        ],
        [
          "planet",
          "planet"
        ],
        [
          "moon",
          "moon"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "US"
          ],
          "word": "gray goo"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Engines of Creation",
        "grey goo"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "grey goo"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "grey goo (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Eschatology",
        "en:Fictional materials",
        "en:Nanotechnology",
        "en:Robotics",
        "en:Science fiction"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007 August 24, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 2024-05-11:",
          "text": "\"Our first priority has to be quarantining Xinchub's body, and examining any Yomingians who may have handled it. I don't think we're headed for a grey-goo scenario here, but we'd all feel really bad if the local biosphere got consumed by nanobots after we left.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 October 22, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-7759 - T is for \"Transmission\"” (14:43 from the start), in The Exploring Series, retrieved 2024-05-15:",
          "text": "[…]Through this, they learn more, and manage to reverse-engineer the ion drives of the drone, allowing them to move the station very rapidly towards Earth. On their way, they manage to send signals to multiple Foundation facilities, overriding them and using their fabrication plants to make new nanomachines. At this rate, it won't be long before there's a good old-fashioned grey-goo scenario, and humanity and the Earth are similarly consumed.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth (or another planet or moon)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "hypothetical",
          "hypothetical"
        ],
        [
          "end-of-the-world",
          "end of the world"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "nanotechnology",
          "nanotechnology"
        ],
        [
          "out-of-control",
          "out of control"
        ],
        [
          "self-replicating",
          "self-replicating"
        ],
        [
          "nanobot",
          "nanobot"
        ],
        [
          "life",
          "life"
        ],
        [
          "Earth",
          "Earth"
        ],
        [
          "planet",
          "planet"
        ],
        [
          "moon",
          "moon"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Engines of Creation",
        "grey goo"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "word": "gray goo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grey goo"
}

Download raw JSONL data for grey goo meaning in English (2.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.