valence

noun/ˈveɪləns/

Frequency rank: #14,425 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

The combining power of an element, determined by the number of electrons it can gain, lose, or share.

Illustration for the English word “valence”

Example sentence

In chemistry class, we learned that the valence of oxygen determines how it bonds with other elements.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 14,401–14,500