technology

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɛkˈnɒləd͡ʒi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɛkˈnɑləd͡ʒi/
• Rhymes: -ɒləd͡ʒi

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

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

Related terms

Collocations

Descendants

• → Japanese: テクノロジー (tekunorojī)

Translations

Further reading

• “technology”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• technology in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "technology" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 315.
• “technology”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “technology”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• technology, technique, art, method, machinery, machines, devices at Google Ngram Viewer
• technological, technical at Google Ngram Viewer