Nanosized

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing entities whose size is within the nanometer range, characterized by dimensions usually between 1 and 100 nanometers, and associated with structures or particles that are minuscule in nature
2. Pertaining to objects that are measured on the nanoscale, typically ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers, and relating to materials or particles that exhibit extremely small dimensions
3. Having dimensions that fall within the scale of nanometers, typically between one and one hundred nanometers

Etymology: "Nanosized" is a plain modern compound: "nano-" joined to "sized," the past participle of "size" used as an adjective. The prefix "nano-" comes from ancient Greek "nânos," meaning "dwarf," which passed into Latin as "nānus" and reached English as a scientific combining form meaning one billionth (10 to the power of minus nine) of a unit. Because "nano-" was attached to measurement units, a word like "nanosized" is simply a way of saying "sized at the nanometer scale." Nothing in this word is older than the nanoscale itself. Its meaning is literal: the prefix sets the scale, and "sized" says that something has been measured or made to that scale. Its ancestry runs back to a Greek word for a small person, but the combined term belongs to modern scientific English.

Synonyms: nano-scale, microscopic