sodium
UK /ˈsəʊ.di.əm/ · US /ˈsoʊ.di.əm/ noun
Forms sodiums
- noun (chemistry) The chemical element (symbol Na) with an atomic number of 11 and atomic weight of 22.990. It is a soft, waxy, silvery, reactive alkali metal that is never found unbound in nature.
- noun An atom of this element.
- noun (attributive) Employing sodium.
Synonyms
Etymology
Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from soda + -ium.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A common metallic element of the alkali group, in nature always occuring combined, as in common salt, in albite, etc. It is isolated as a soft, waxy, white, unstable metal, so readily oxidized that it combines violently with water, and to be preserved must be kept under petroleum or some similar liquid. Sodium is used combined in many salts, in the free state as a reducer, and as a means of obtaining other metals (as magnesium and aluminium) is an important commercial product. Symbol Na (Natrium). Atomic weight 23. Specific gravity 0.97. Sodium amalgam, an alloy of sodium and mercury, usually
Etymology [NL., fr.E. soda.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sodium”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details