tellurium
a rare, lustrous, brittle, crystalline, silver-white element resembling sulfur in its properties, and usually occurring in nature combined with gold, silver, or other metals of high atomic weight: used in the manufacture of alloys and as a coloring agent in glass and ceramics. Symbol: Te; atomic weight: 127.60; atomic number: 52; specific gravity: 6.24.
Origin of tellurium
1Words Nearby tellurium
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tellurium in a sentence
The compounds ranged from lithium to aluminum, useful in things like batteries and airplane parts, and from tellurium to titanium, which go in objects like semiconductors and metal alloys.
The US government is hunting for rare metals out West. That doesn’t fly with some locals. | Sarah Scoles/Undark | November 10, 2021 | Popular-SciencePalladium, rhodium and tellurium are also met with as alloys of gold.
The Wonder Book of Knowledge | VariousIt is also found in some comparatively rare minerals, such as tetradymite, combined with tellurium, and associated with gold.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerThe cross in tellurium is identical with that in cadmium, except that the centre is seven-atomed instead of four-atomed.
Occult Chemistry | Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeatertellurium very closely resembles cadmium, and they are, therefore placed on the same diagram.
Occult Chemistry | Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater
Tellūrif′erous, containing tellurium; Tel′lūrous, pertaining to tellurium.
British Dictionary definitions for tellurium
/ (tɛˈlʊərɪəm) /
a brittle silvery-white nonmetallic element occurring both uncombined and in combination with metals: used in alloys of lead and copper and as a semiconductor. Symbol: Te; atomic no: 52; atomic wt: 127.60; valency: 2, 4, or 6; relative density: 6.24; melting pt: 449.57±0.3°C; boiling pt: 988°C
Origin of tellurium
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 tellurium
[ tĕ-lur′ē-əm ]
A metalloid element that occurs as either a brittle, shiny, silvery-white crystal or a gray or brown powder. Small amounts of tellurium are used to improve the alloys of various metals. Atomic number 52; atomic weight 127.60; melting point 449.5°C; boiling point 989.8°C; specific gravity 6.24; valence 2, 4, 6. See Periodic Table.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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