Word Study
potassium
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun potassium has 1 sense
- potassium(n = noun.substance) atomic number 19, k - a light soft silver-white metallic element of the alkali metal group; oxidizes rapidly in air and reacts violently with water; is abundant in nature in combined forms occurring in sea water and in carnallite and kainite and sylvite; Array is a kind of metal, metallic element
CIDE DICTIONARY
An Alkali element, occurring abundantly but always combined, as in the chloride, sulphate, carbonate, or silicate, in the minerals sylvite, kainite, orthoclase, muscovite, etc. Atomic weight 39.0. Symbol K (Kalium). [1913 Webster]
" It is reduced from the carbonate as a soft white metal, lighter than water, which oxidizes with the greatest readiness, and, to be preserved, must be kept under liquid hydrocarbons, as naphtha or kerosene. Its compounds are very important, being used in glass making, soap making, in fertilizers, and in many drugs and chemicals."
[1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
potassium, n. Chem. a soft silver-white metallic element occurring naturally in seawater and various minerals, an essential element for living organisms, and forming many useful compounds used industrially.
Idiom
potassium chloride a white crystalline solid used as a fertilizer and in photographic processing. potassium cyanide a highly toxic solid that can be hydrolysed to give poisonous hydrogen cyanide gas: also called CYANIDE. potassium iodide a white crystalline solid used as an additive to table salt to prevent iodine deficiency. potassium permanganate a purple crystalline solid that is used in solution as an oxidizing agent and disinfectant.
Usage
Symb.: K.
Derivative
potassic adj.
Etymology
POTASH + -IUM
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