molybdenum
/məˈlɪbdɪnəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.74 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The metals at preſent amount to 21 ; only 11 of which were known before the year 1730. Their names are gold, ſilver, platinum, mercury, copper, iron, tin, lead, zinc, antimony, biſmuth, arſenic, cobalt, nickel, manganeſe, tungſten, molybdenum, uranium, tellurium, titanium, chromum."
- "Technical terms like ferrite, perlite, graphite, and hardenite were bandied to and fro, and when Paget glibly brought out such a rare exotic as ferro-molybdenum, Benson forgot that he was a master ship-builder, […]"
- "Extensive deposits of copper and molybdenum ore, situated some 200 miles northwest of Ulan Bator between the Selenga and Orkhon Rivers, will eventually be extracted by open‐pit methods and processed at the still unfinished town of Erdenet."
- "At pH levels below 5, wheat yields may be low, molybdenum may become unavailable to plants, and other trace elements may be concentrated to toxic levels."
- "a quadruple bond between molybdenums"
- "Thus in M₄O₁₁, for example, ¾ of the molybdenums are octahedrally connected and ¼ are tetrahedrally coordinated and, furthermore, the formula is compatible with the existence of one Mo(IV) for every three Mo(VI), so at first glance the compound might appear to be a class I mixed valence system."
Etymology
From New Latin molybdaenum, from molybdaena (“any of various substances resembling lead”), from Ancient Greek μολύβδαινα (molúbdaina, “a plummet, piece of lead”), from μόλυβδος (mólubdos, “lead; graphite”), from an Anatolian word cognate with Lydian 𐤪𐤠𐤭𐤦𐤥𐤣𐤠 (mariwda, “dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *morkʷ-iyo-, from a root *morkʷ- (“dark”), cognate with English murk. Cf. Latin plumbum nigrum 'lead'. The suffix is + -um (“a chemical element”). Attested since the last quarter of 18th century.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
molybdenums (plural)
molybdænum (alternative, archaic)
Derived Forms
chromoly
dimolybdenum
ferromolybdenum
moly
molybdate
molybdenated
molybdenian
molybdeniferous
molybdian
molybdosis
nonmolybdenum
organomolybdenum
Phrases
molybdenum blue
molybdenum carbonyl
molybdenum chloride
molybdenum disulfide
molybdenum disulphide
molybdenum hexacarbonyl
molybdenum orange
molybdenum oxide