title: Are "atomic" and "synchronous" synonyms in programming?
body: <p>Do "atomic" and "synchronous" mean the same thing or are there some minute differences?</p>
  
  <p>Looking at the answers to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15054086/what-does-atomic-mean-in-programming" title="What does &quot;atomic&quot; mean in programming?">this question</a>, I think the answer to my question is yes, they're synonyms. Are the following true in general?</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>a synchronous operation will complete before the next operation starts</li>
  <li>an atomic operation is the same as a synchronous operation</li>
  <li>an asynchronous operation will complete at some point before or after the next operation starts</li>
  </ul>