germanium
a scarce, metallic, grayish-white element, normally tetravalent, used chiefly in transistors. Symbol: Ge; atomic weight: 72.59; atomic number: 32; specific gravity: 5.36 at 20°C.
Origin of germanium
1Words Nearby germanium
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use germanium in a sentence
A second leap overcame the problems of germanium, which performed poorly under certain temperature and moisture conditions and was relatively rare.
What made the last century’s great innovations possible? | Jon Gertner | March 18, 2022 | Science NewsThe three credited inventors — William Shockley, John Bardeen and William Brattain — had found a way to create a very fast switch or amplifier by running a current through a slightly impure slice of germanium.
What made the last century’s great innovations possible? | Jon Gertner | March 18, 2022 | Science NewsThe first semiconductor switch, dubbed the transistor, was made of germanium and invented at Bell Laboratories in 1947.
Materials of the last century shaped modern life, but at a price | Carolyn Wilke | January 28, 2022 | Science NewsSilicon is also less likely than germanium to leak current when a switch is off.
Materials of the last century shaped modern life, but at a price | Carolyn Wilke | January 28, 2022 | Science Newsgermanium 64 is not at all stable, and neither is Neodymium 128, but the instability can be corrected by positive beta emission.
The Bramble Bush | Gordon Randall Garrett
In 1875 Lecoq de Boisbandram discovered gallium, which filled one of the gaps; scandium and germanium filled the other two later.
On the one side is carbon, with below it titanium and zirconium; on the other silicon, with germanium and tin.
Occult Chemistry | Annie Besant and Charles W. LeadbeaterIts negative pendant shows the same form in silicon, germanium and tin; again, the fourth was unexamined.
Occult Chemistry | Annie Besant and Charles W. LeadbeaterIt was a true answer, for all statements made by England culminated in the one sentence germanium esse delendam.
In the World War | Count Ottokar Czernin
British Dictionary definitions for germanium
/ (dʒɜːˈmeɪnɪəm) /
a brittle crystalline grey element that is a semiconducting metalloid, occurring principally in zinc ores and argyrodite: used in transistors, as a catalyst, and to strengthen and harden alloys. Symbol: Ge; atomic no: 32; atomic wt: 72.61; valency: 2 or 4; relative density: 5.323; melting pt: 938.35°C; boiling pt: 2834°C
Origin of germanium
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for germanium
[ jər-mā′nē-əm ]
A brittle, crystalline, grayish-white metalloid element that is found in coal, in zinc ores, and in several minerals. It is used as a semiconductor and in wide-angle lenses. Atomic number 32; atomic weight 72.59; melting point 937.4°C; boiling point 2,830°C; specific gravity 5.323 (at 25°C); valence 2, 4. See Periodic Table.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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