-ium


  1. a suffix found on nouns borrowed from Latin, especially derivatives of verbs (odium; tedium; colloquium; delirium), deverbal compounds with the initial element denoting the object of the verb (nasturtium), other types of compounds (equilibrium; millennium), and derivatives of personal nouns, often denoting the associated status or office (collegium; consortium; magisterium); -ium also occurs in scientific coinages on a Latin model, as in names of metallic elements (barium; titanium) and as a Latinization of Gk -ion (pericardium).

Origin of -ium

1
<New Latin, Latin, neuter suffix

Words Nearby -ium

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How to use -ium in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for -ium

-ium

suffix forming nouns
  1. indicating a metallic element: platinum; barium

  2. (in chemistry) indicating groups forming positive ions: ammonium chloride; hydroxonium ion

  1. indicating a biological structure: syncytium

Origin of -ium

1
New Latin, from Latin, from Greek -ion, diminutive suffix

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