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• ion
  ion

  noun

  an electrically charged atom or group of atoms formed by the loss or gain of one or more electrons, as a cation positive ion, which is created by electron loss and is attracted to the cathode in electrolysis, or as an anion negative ion, which is created by an electron gain and is attracted to the anode. The valence of an ion is equal to the number of electrons lost or gained and is indicated by a plus sign for cations and a minus sign for anions, thus: Na + , Cl−, Ca ++ , S = .
• Ion
  Ion

  noun

  the eponymous ancestor of the Ionians: a son of Apollo and Creusa who is abandoned by his mother but returns to become an attendant in Apollo's temple at Delphi.
• -ion
  -ion

  a suffix, appearing in words of Latin origin, denoting action or condition, used in Latin and in English to form nouns from stems of Latin adjectives (communion; union ), verbs (legion; opinion ), and especially past participles (allusion; creation; fusion; notion; torsion ).
• Ion.
  Ion.

  abbreviation

  Ionic.

SEE ALSO:

Slang dictionary results for ion.

ion

¹ American  

[ahy-uhn, ahy-on] / ˈaɪ ən, ˈaɪ ɒn /

noun

Physics, Chemistry.

• ions
  plural

1. an electrically charged atom or group of atoms formed by the loss or gain of one or more electrons, as a cation positive ion, which is created by electron loss and is attracted to the cathode in electrolysis, or as an anion negative ion, which is created by an electron gain and is attracted to the anode. The valence of an ion is equal to the number of electrons lost or gained and is indicated by a plus sign for cations and a minus sign for anions, thus: Na + , Cl−, Ca ++ , S = .

2. one of the electrically charged particles formed in a gas by electric discharge or the like.

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Ion ² American  

[ahy-on] / ˈaɪ ɒn /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. the eponymous ancestor of the Ionians: a son of Apollo and Creusa who is abandoned by his mother but returns to become an attendant in Apollo's temple at Delphi.

2. (italics) a drama on this subject (415? b.c.) by Euripides.

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-ion ³ American  

1. a suffix, appearing in words of Latin origin, denoting action or condition, used in Latin and in English to form nouns from stems of Latin adjectives (communion; union ), verbs (legion; opinion ), and especially past participles (allusion; creation; fusion; notion; torsion ).

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Ion. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. Ionic.

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ion ¹ British  

/ ˈaɪən, -ɒn /

noun

1. an electrically charged atom or group of atoms formed by the loss or gain of one or more electrons See also cation anion

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-ion ² British  

suffix

1. indicating an action, process, or state Compare -ation -tion

   creation

   objection

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ion Scientific  

/ ī′ən,ī′ŏn′ /

1. An atom or a group of atoms that has an electric charge. Positive ions, or cations, are formed by the loss of electrons; negative ions, or anions, are formed by the gain of electrons.

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ion Cultural  

1. An atom that has either lost or gained one or more electrons, so that it has an electrical charge. Ions can be either positively or negatively charged.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ions
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of ion¹

< Greek ión going, neuter present participle of iénai to go; term introduced by Michael Faraday in 1834

Origin of -ion³

< Latin -iōn- (stem of -iō ) suffix forming nouns, especially on past participle stems; replacing Middle English -ioun < Anglo-French < Latin -iōn-

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Explanation

An ion is an atom or particle with a positive or negative electrical charge. Think of an ion as having a plus or minus sign. Ion is a word you are most likely to encounter in a physics or chemistry text. But you don’t have to be a chemist or physicist to understand the concept. If you had a neutral particle and you were able to remove or add an electron, then you would have an ion — a charged particle. Don't confuse the tiny ion with the similar word eon, which is an extremely long period of time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ion Ion Ion. ions

The author’s own research involves measuring tiny electrical currents flowing through parts of our brain cells called ion channels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were honored for their research into “light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

To examine the samples, the researchers used focused ion beam preparation, transmission electron microscopy, and chemical analysis.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026

China leads the world in sodium ion battery manufacturing at present so US competitors are going to have to work hard to keep up.

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

According to Edlefsen’s rudimentary ion detectors, something was going on inside the flask, but whether it was protons accelerating in resonance with an oscillating electric field was by no means clear.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Originally purchased by Singapore Airlines in the early 2000s, the jets were parked in China after being acquired by Ion Aviation, a Florida-registered company.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

The need for such high levels of reliability can stress the capabilities of AI architectures and humans alike, according to computer scientist and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

"These magnons can transmit information through a magnet without the need for charge transport," explains project leader Dr. Helmut Schultheiß from the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at HZDR.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 27, 2026

Games will also air on Ion and USA Network.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026

“It is time we sent for Prince Aegon as well,” Lord Ion announced.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

In the first place, the Portuguese, who discovered that island in 1506, and explored its coasts in the following years, could not have Ion. remained in ignorance of De Gonneville's voyage.

From The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 by Ernest Favenc

The model examines how metal ions, which are electrically charged forms of metals, may influence this protein buildup.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

In these experiments, heavy ions such as lead are accelerated to nearly the speed of light and smashed together.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

Carefully controlled laser beams were then used to adjust how the ions interacted with one another.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

Metal ions help transfer energy from a star's radiation into surrounding material, pushing that material outward.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026

There was no evidence that hydrogen ions had charged around Edlefsen’s “rather sketchy” apparatus at all, much less at any appreciable fraction of 1 million electron volts.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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