Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A hard, silvery-white metallic element used to toughen alloy steels and soften tungsten alloy. An essential trace element in plant nutrition, it is used in fertilizers, dyes, enamels, and reagents. Atomic number 42; atomic weight 95.94; melting point 2,617°C; boiling point 4,612°C; specific gravity 10.22 (at 20°C); valence 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. See Table at element.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Chemical symbol, Mo; atomic weight, 95. 8. A metal of a silver-white color, but harder than silver, which fuses with difficulty, if at all, at the highest temperature of a wind-furnace. Its specific gravity is 8. 6. It is chemically related to chromium, tungsten, and uranium, and, like those metals, forms trioxids which are acid-forming and yield very characteristic salts. It is remarkable for the number of oxids and corresponding chlorids which it forms; but it is the least important economically of the group to which it belongs. The most abundant ore of molybdenum is the sulphuret (molybdenite), and the strong external resemblance of this mineral to graphite (Latin plumbago) led to the confusion of molybdena with that substance; moreover, external resemblance and certain chemical peculiarities caused still further difficulties of nomenclature, in which manganese, antimony, and even magnesia were involved. Thus, the peroxid of manganese was called by Linnæus molybdænum magnesii. These perplexities were not cleared up until toward the end of the last century; but finally, as the result of the labors of Scheele, Bergman, and Hjelm (1778-90), the metal molybdena, or molybdenum, as it is now more generally called, was isolated from its combinations. The ores of molybdenum are somewhat widely diffused, but rarely occur in any considerable quantity. The principal molybdeniferous minerals are molybdenite and wulfenite. There is also a molybdic ocher (the trioxid) and a carbonate (pateraite); various ores of iron also contain traces of this metal.
Wiktionary
- n. A metallic chemical element (symbol Mo) with an atomic number of 42.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Chem.) A rare element of the chromium group, occurring in nature in the minerals molybdenite and wulfenite, and when reduced obtained as a hard, silver-white, difficulty fusible metal. Symbol Mo. Atomic number 42. Atomic weight 95.94.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a polyvalent metallic element that resembles chromium and tungsten in its properties; used to strengthen and harden steel
Etymologies
- From New Latin molybdenum, from Ancient Greek μόλυβδος ("lead"), because the two elements are so similar they were often confused. (Wiktionary)
- New Latin, from earlier molybdena, lead ore, from Latin molybdaena, galena, from Greek molubdaina, from molubdos, lead. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“If copper is the life blood of the economy, I call molybdenum the glue of the economy.”
“Taken together, the interests in both miners are likely to make Sichuan Hanlong a major player in the global market for molybdenum, which is commonly used in steel alloys and to remove sulfur impurities from petroleum products.”
The Wall Street Journal: China Firm Seeks Australian Mine Deals
“The deal is likely to make Sichuan Hanlong a major player in the global market for molybdenum, which is commonly used in steel alloys and to remove sulfur impurities from petroleum products.”
“Production of molybdenum, which is used in the making of steel, decreased 28%.”
The Wall Street Journal: Freeport-McMoRan's Earnings Decline 37%
“It also said its operations for molybdenum, which is used in the making of steel, are likely to remain weaker than normal.”
“The reactors produce material called molybdenum-99 that decays into technetium-99m, which is the most commonly used medical isotope in the U.S.”
The Wall Street Journal: Closure of Canadian Nuclear Reactor Hampers Medical Sector
“The Metals Week Dealer Oxide price for molybdenum, which is used in steelmaking, had fallen to $9 on Monday from about $30 a pound in October, hurt by the slump in demand for steel.”
“Freeport, based in Phoenix, said it is slashing its 2009 capital-expenditure budget by 52%, to $1.1 billion from a prior estimate of $2.3 billion, because of sharply lower prices of copper and molybdenum, which is used to strengthen steel.”
“Many times I typed the word molybdenum, uncertain how it might be said.”
“Sales of copper, gold and molybdenum, which is used to strengthen steel, all topped the company's expectations.”
Freeport-McMoRan 4Q earnings jump on higher prices - Yahoo! Finance
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘molybdenum’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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• De rerum natura
What is this list about?
Interesting words in nature and natural science (in any language!).
What kind of words am I supposed to add?
You can add species names that you lov...lagerstätte, parthenogenesis, bushbaby, lepidoptera, dinoflagellate, pupation, chrysalis, ephemeroptera, deinococcus radio..., homoplasy, sciophilous, syncytium and 218 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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TECH - metals and alloys
toughness, furnace, vibration, bronze, modulus, tubing, flow, zinc, melting, porta, embrittle, wetting and 262 more...
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Chemical Elements
A list of chemical elements
hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium and 106 more...
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Dudgeon and Dragging
They're not actually from fantasy or science fiction writing, but they certainly sound as though they could have been...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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The Elements
hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium and 99 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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What David Foster Wallace circled in ...
ablative, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, ailanthus, aleatory, alfresco, algolagnia and 474 more...
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Just Plain Weird.
Something about these words doesn't look or feel right. And yet... they're strangely appealing.
pumpkin, platypus, atlatl, pterodactyl, octopus, veldt, asparagus, aspic, lacquer, mastiff, weevil, lapis and 156 more...
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What David Foster Wallace Circled in ...
http://www.slate.com/id/2250784/
ablative absolute, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, aleatory, ailanthus, alfresco, algolagnia and 482 more...
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Evin290's Words
puerile, fastidious, blatherskite, folderol, femtosecond, redox, incarnadine, cerulean, genuflection, muslin, multitudinous, miasma and 517 more...
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good hangman words
lye, syzygy, zymurgy, proxy, wyvern, xystus, rhythm, onomatopoeia, scythe, cyst, pygmy, oxygen and 7 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for molybdenum.

yarb Shortened to moly, pronounced molly, in the metals trade. Aug 26, 2008
oroboros Mo. Dec 15, 2007