sodium

Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from soda +‎ -ium.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊ.dɪəm/
• (US) enPR: sōʹdē-əm, IPA^(key): /ˈsoʊ.di.əm/

• audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -əʊdiəm

sodium (usually uncountable, plural sodiums)

1. 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.
2. (attributive) Employing sodium.
   • 1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 48:

     From Keighley onwards we had obviously returned to civilisation, for the surrounding country was now studded with the sodium street lights of suburbia and a thickening industrial haze was blotting out the moon.

• natrium (rare)

• soda

• amphibole
• borax
• Chile saltpeter, Chile saltpetre
• cryolite
• halite
• natron
• salt
• zeolite

• Sodium on the British Royal Society of Chemistry's online periodic table
• “sodium”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• modius, odiums

• IPA^(key): /sɔ.djɔm/

• Audio (Paris)

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• Audio

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sodium m (uncountable)

1. sodium

• hydroxyde de sodium

• “sodium”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.