Meaning & use
silo
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A tall tower or covered pit on a farm used to store grain or animal feed.
Grammar: Takes a plural: silos.
Patterns
- a silo for something
Farmers filled the silo with corn after the harvest.
A tall silo stood beside the barn.
The silo can hold hundreds of tons of grain.
nouncountablemilitary
An underground structure for storing and launching a missile.
Grammar: Often missile silo.
Patterns
- a missile silo
The missile silo was buried deep underground.
Engineers inspected the silo for leaks.
The old silo is now a museum.
nouncountablebusinessfigurative
A department or system that works apart from others and does not share information.
Grammar: Often plural and used with break down: break down silos.
Patterns
- break down silos
- work in silos
The company's departments worked in silos and rarely talked.
The new manager wants to break down silos.
Data stuck in silos is hard to analyze.
Word forms
| plural | silos |
|---|
Common combinations
- grain silo
- A grain silo stood in the field.
- missile silo
- The missile silo was classified.
- break down silos
- Leaders must break down silos between teams.
- work in silos
- Teams that work in silos miss problems.
- data silo
- A data silo keeps information locked in one team.
Synonyms and how they differ
- storehouse
- Storehouse is a general word for any building used for storage, while silo is tall and for bulk goods.
- granary
- A granary is a building for grain, often lower than a silo.
- bunker
- Bunker is an underground shelter or store, which only partly overlaps with missile silo.
- compartment
- Compartment is a general word for a separated part, which may lack the idea of isolation.
Word family
Commonly confused: silo or silt?
silo vs silt
Silt is fine sand carried by water and is unrelated to silo.
Practice
The company's departments work in ___, so useful data rarely reaches the other teams.
Choose one answer.
Work in silos is an established phrase for isolated departments. Lanes could work in a sport, but not with information sharing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “silo”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.