valence
Pronunciation: /ˈveɪl(ə)ns/
The English word “valence” has 6 meanings listed here.
noun
- The combining capacity of an atom, functional group, or radical determined by the number of atoms of hydrogen with which it will unite, or the number of electrons that it will gain, lose, or share when it combines with other atoms, etc.
- The number of binding sites of a molecule, such as an antibody or antigen.
- The number of arguments that a verb can have, including its subject, ranging from zero to three or, less commonly, four.
- A one-dimensional value assigned by a person to an object, situation, or state, that can usually be positive (causing a feeling of attraction) or negative (repulsion).
- The value which a person places on something.
- For a correspondence T on a curve: a number k such that the divisors T(P)+kP are all linearly equivalent.
Etymology
Etymology 1, noun sense 1.1 (“combining capacity of an atom”) and etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“one-dimensional value assigned by a person to an object, situation, or state”) are borrowed from German Valenz + English -ence (suffix meaning ‘having the condition or state of’). Valenz is a clipping of Quantivalenz (“(archaic) valence in chemistry”), from English quantivalence, from Latin quantus (“how…
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More English words
- valedictorian
- valedictorily
- valedictory
- valencane
- valence band
- valence bond
- valence electron
- valence isomer
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.