atomic operation
compound.compound. a computer task that happens completely or not at all. It cannot be interrupted or stopped halfway through by another part of the system.
compound. an operation that appears to the rest of the system as a single, indivisible action. It guarantees that the state change is either fully completed or has no effect, preventing data corruption in concurrent environments.
The database uses an atomic operation to update your account balance.
When two users try to buy the last ticket at once, the system must use an atomic operation to ensure only one succeeds.
In multi-threaded programming, ensuring that a variable increment is an atomic operation prevents race conditions where two threads might read and write the same memory location simultaneously.
Derived from the Greek atomos, meaning indivisible, combined with the Latin operatio. The term applies the philosophical concept of an irreducible unit to the execution of logical instructions.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Commonly used in the context of database transactions and concurrent programming; often paired with the verb 'perform' or 'execute'.
Last updated July 22, 2026