"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. Wikipedia link: Engines of Creation, grey goo Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Nanotechnology, Robotics, Science fiction Synonyms: gray goo [US]
    Sense id: en-grey_goo-en-noun-9Ho3-~iu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Eschatology, Fictional materials

Download JSON data for grey goo meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "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",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Eschatology",
          "orig": "en:Eschatology",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fictional materials",
          "orig": "en:Fictional materials",
          "parents": [],
          "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"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth."
      ],
      "id": "en-grey_goo-en-noun-9Ho3-~iu",
      "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"
        ]
      ],
      "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 uncountable nouns",
        "en:Eschatology",
        "en:Fictional materials",
        "en:Nanotechnology",
        "en:Robotics",
        "en:Science fiction"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth."
      ],
      "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"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Engines of Creation",
        "grey goo"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "word": "gray goo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grey goo"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). 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.