{
  "id": "hardware.physical",
  "term": "hardware",
  "sense": "physical",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 7,
  "arena": "everyday",
  "domain": "everyday",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "it is matter with a structure that can be used in devices",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "matter.substance",
      "structure.arrangement",
      "device.tool",
      "use.application"
    ],
    "interaction": "the matter is structured in a way that enables its use in a device.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "configured matter",
      "functional form",
      "device-readiness"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror, polished to 10-nanometer precision, enabled space-based astronomy from 1990 onward.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Intel 8086 microprocessor, released in 1978, became the foundation of early IBM PCs.",
      "domain": "computing"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometer superconducting magnet array collides protons at near light speed.",
      "domain": "physics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "device.tool",
      "type": "is-a",
      "note": "hardware is a kind of device"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "hardware"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Added device.tool and use.application to components because the definition relies on 'used in devices' and 'use' implicitly. The existing definition remains correct and concise, but the emergence reco"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-hardware.physical"
}