Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A soft, bluish-white metallic element occurring primarily in zinc, copper, and lead ores, that is easily cut with a knife and is used in nickel-cadmium storage batteries, rustproof electroplating, nuclear reactor shields, solders, and in low-friction, fatigue-resistant alloys. Atomic number 48; atomic weight 112.41; melting point 321.1°C; boiling point 767°C; specific gravity 8.65; valence 2. cross-reference: Periodic Table.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Atomic weight, 112.1; chemical symbol, Cd. A metal discovered by Stromeyer in 1817, resembling tin in color and general appearance, and, like that metal, having a “cry” when bent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) A comparatively rare element related to zinc, and occurring in some zinc ores. It is a white metal, both ductile and malleable. Symbol Cd. Atomic weight 111.8. It was discovered by Stromeyer in 1817, who named it from its association with zinc or zinc ore.
  • noun a compound of cadmium and sulphur, of an intense yellow color, used as a pigment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a metallic chemical element (symbol Cd) with an atomic number of 48.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a soft bluish-white ductile malleable toxic bivalent metallic element; occurs in association with zinc ores

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin cadmīa, calamine (the ore of zinc from which cadmium was first extracted as an impurity) (from Greek kadmeia (gē), Theban (earth), from Kadmos, Cadmus; see Cadmus) + –ium.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek Καδμεία (calamine), a Cadmium-bearing mixture of minerals, which was named after the god, Κάδμος (Cadmus)

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  • Cd.

    December 16, 2007