silo

noun

1. A vertical building, usually cylindrical, used for the production of silage.
2. From the shape, a building used for the storage of grain.
3. An underground bunker used to hold missiles which may be launched.

   “As a rule of thumb, to reliably destroy a hardened missile silo or communications bunker, a one megaton warhead should land within a 600 foot radius of its target. This will ensure that the enemy silo lies within the crater gouged out by the nuclear blast.”

4. (derogatory, informal)An organizational unit that has poor interaction with other units, negatively affecting overall performance.

   “A silo is created when members in one department or function do not interact with those in another department, even though there might be operational benefits to the interaction.”

   “Graeme Bickerdike, a member of campaign organisation The HRE Group, told RAIL: "This infilling and demolition programme - costing much more than repair - has been conceived with no thought for its impact beyond the silos where distant, unaccountable officials manage their spreadsheets.”

   “"And the mindset of a silo of rail engineers, and a silo of highway engineers, and a silo of bus experts, and a silo of active travel people, you're not going to integrate just because you put them in one organisation. "You have to actively look at ways to cross-fertilise that thinking, to get multi-modal projects hard-wired in. And from our view, I see TfW as a behaviour change organisation.”

5. (derogatory, informal)A structure in the information system that is poorly networked with other structures, with data exchange hampered.

   “Our networking is organized in silos, and employees lose time manually transferring data.”

6. (derogatory, slang)A group of like-minded individuals who are not exposed to outside opinions or input.
7. In Microsoft Windows operating systems, a kernel object for isolating groups of threads.

verb

1. (transitive)To store in a silo.
2. (transitive)To separate; to isolate.

   “Then there’s the fact that platforms like TikTok tend to silo users based on interests. Niche communities (insert hobby here plus Tok) are thriving, and so a person who may be famous on FarmTok or BookTok may have trouble breaking out of the mold.”

   “Sheel Mohnot, a venture capitalist friend of Bi’s who has commissioned twiblings, said the problem is that information is siloed when “each agency has their own database of wombs.””