Nanomachine

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any mechanical device, manufactured using nanotechnology, having a scale measured in nanometres.

    "There are many terrifying possibilities for nanotechnology; military nanomachines could infiltrate human bodies and systematically tear them apart using the same principles medical nanomachines will use to repair them. An uncontrolled nanomachine designed to replicate itself could lead to the "grey goo" scenario that once panicked Prince Charles."

  2. 2
    a machine of the size of close to one nanometre wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To machine with tolerances measured in nanometres.

Example

More examples

"There are many terrifying possibilities for nanotechnology; military nanomachines could infiltrate human bodies and systematically tear them apart using the same principles medical nanomachines will use to repair them. An uncontrolled nanomachine designed to replicate itself could lead to the "grey goo" scenario that once panicked Prince Charles."

Etymology

From nano- + machine.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.