: a trench, pit, or especially a tall cylinder (as of wood or concrete) usually sealed to exclude air and used for making and storing silage
2
a
: a deep bin for storing material (such as coal)
b
: an underground structure for housing a guided missile
These are weapons that can hit military targets, such as missile silos and headquarters, swiftly and accurately …—Leslie H. Gelb
3
: an isolated grouping, department, etc., that functions apart from others especially in a way seen as hindering communication and cooperation
Big, complex companies are typically structured so that decision making is separated according to function, geography and product. That naturally creates silos.—John H. Howard
Examples of silos in blue-chip firms abound: Sony once had two separate divisions working on creating the same electrical plug without anyone realizing it.—Rana Foroohar
To break down silos individual officials need a stronger sense of belonging to a bigger whole, with norms and expectations spanning all departments and agencies.—David Walker
Moorhouse came to the paper determined to break down its "silos"—MBA-speak for self-contained departments that don't have anything to do with other departments in a business.—Mark Fitzgerald
: to place or store (material, such as grain) in a silo
2
: to isolate (someone or something, such as a grouping or department) in a way that hinders communication and cooperation with others : to place (someone or something) in an isolated silo (see siloentry 1 sense 3)
One step banks can take to balance efforts, [Emmett] Higdon suggested, is to stop siloing mobile and online banking development efforts and channels.—Nathan DiCamillo
Examples of silo in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Durand also cites real-world history to inform why Proximus wouldn’t want humans to regain power through the contents of the silo.—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2024 Take, for instance, the common workplace phenomenon of employees working in silos.—Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 13 May 2024
Verb
The company has undertaken two massive corporate restructuring efforts — Project Texas and Project Clover, referring to the US and European endeavors, respectively — to silo off user data from China.—Gaby Del Valle, The Verge, 17 May 2024 Virtualization then had two functions, to silo data and to translate commands for the underlying hardware.—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2010 See all Example Sentences for silo
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'silo.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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