Atomized

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A state in which matter has been separated into its smallest indivisible constituents occurs when a substance is broken down into minuscule and isolated fragments
2. Reduced into very small particles or fine droplets, typically by mechanical or chemical means
3. Transformed into minute fragments or dispersed as tiny droplets throughout an environment

Etymology: Ancient Greek thinkers imagined matter ending in pieces too small to cut further, and they called such a piece "atomos", meaning "uncuttable" (from "a-", "not", and "temnein", "to cut"). Democritus and Leucippus are the names usually attached to this idea. The root "atomos" then passed into Latin as "atomus" and into English as "atom", so the core of "atomized" is a word built around the notion of something that cannot be divided. "Atomize" was formed in English by adding the verb-making suffix "-ize", which came through Late Latin "-izare" and Greek "-izein", to "atom". That makes the verb literally "to reduce to atoms." Its past form, "atomized", describes something that has been broken into such tiny separate fragments that it can no longer be considered a single body.

Synonyms: dispersed, fragmented