noble gas

noun

, Chemistry.

1. any of the chemically inert gaseous elements of group 8A or 0 of the periodic table: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon.

noble gas

noun

1. another name for inert gas

noble gas

/ nō′bəl /

1. Any of the six gases helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. Because the outermost electron shell of atoms of these gases is full, they do not react chemically with other substances except under certain special conditions.
2. Also called inert gas
3. See Periodic Table

Word History and Origins

Origin of noble gas¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

That glass, once cooled, then is filled with neon, the inert noble gas that gave the 1950s and the 1990s their distinctive looks.

From Seattle Times

Nonetheless, scientists have long operated under the assumption that any helium on Earth's surface would, because it is so light, eventually float into space or that the majority of the light noble gas would have been expelled during 4.6 billion years of volcanic eruptions.

From Salon

They also found that the ratio isotopes for a different noble gas, neon, matches the conditions believed to have existed on Earth when the planet was formed millions of years ago.

From Salon

L’Huillier broke down some of the first barriers in 1987, when she discovered that passing an infrared laser through a noble gas, such as argon, led to a pattern in the emitted light: a plateau in the frequency.

From Scientific American

The noble gas neon was first isolated by British chemists at the turn of the 20th century.

From Los Angeles Times