Word.ws English Dictionary

in silico

Syllables: in si·li·coUK/ɪn ˈsɪlɪkəʊ//ɪn ˈsɪlɪkoʊ/

in silico prepositional phrase: in computer simulation or in virtual reality.

in silico: in computer simulation or in virtual reality
Image: Dark Zero, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Prepositional phrase

  1. In computer simulation or in virtual reality.
    • He was able to dissect the frog in silico.
    • In the future, computers can be used as experimental tools, generating a new source of investigation of living organisms, their study in silico (in contrast to in vivo or in vitro).1996, Antoine Danchin, “On Genomes and Cosmologies”, in Julio Collado-Vides, Boris Magasanik, Temple F[erris] Smith, editors, Integrative Approaches to Molecular Biology, Cambridge, Mass.; London...

Origin of in silico

Pseudo-Latinism, derived from in and silicon (from Latin silex (“flint, pebble, stone; crag, rock”)) + Latin -ō, by analogy with English in vitro (“in glass, referring to an experiment conducted in a test tube”). The silico component refers to silicon chips which were used for computing at the time when the term was coined.

Questions about in silico

What does in silico mean?
In silico means in computer simulation or in virtual reality.
What part of speech is in silico?
In silico is a prepositional phrase.
How do you pronounce in silico?
In silico is pronounced /ɪn ˈsɪlɪkəʊ/ (UK).

Words near in silico in the dictionary

  1. in shortest order
  2. in sickness and in health
  3. in sight
  4. in silence
  5. in silhouette
  6. in silico
  7. in situ
  8. in small doses
  9. in so far as
  10. in so many words
  11. in so much

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in silico (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-in silico.wav.

Cite this entry: “in silico.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_silico. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.