vanadium

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A bright white, soft, ductile metallic element found in several minerals, notably vanadinite and carnotite, having good structural strength and used in rust-resistant high-speed tools, as a carbon stabilizer in some steels, as a titanium-steel bonding agent, and as a catalyst. Atomic number 23; atomic weight 50.942; melting point 1,890°C; boiling point 3,000°C; specific gravity 6.11; valence 2, 3, 4, 5. See Table at element.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Metallic vanadium in a compact state has been obtained by fusion in an electric furnace. It has a gray color, is lustrous, and, as thus far observed, brittle, though perhaps this may be due to impurity of the metal; it is with difficulty freed from oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen.
2. n. Chemical symbol, V; atomic weight, 51.2. A metal first discovered by Del Rio, in 1801, in a lead ore from Mexico, and called by him erythronium, because its salts became red when heated with acids. This supposed new metal was not accepted by chemists, and Del Rio's name was dropped. Later, in 1830, Sefström described a new metal from Taberg, in Sweden, for which he proposed the name of vanadium, (from Vanadis, one of the goddesses of the Scandinavian mythology); and immediately after it was shown by Wöhler that Del Rio's ore was, in fact, a vanadate of lead. But the name vanadium has been maintained, and that of erythronium has never been received. Metallic vanadium, as prepared by reducing the chlorid in hydrogen gas, is a light-gray powder, which under the microscope has a brilliant silvery luster: it has a specific gravity of 5.5; it is very little acted on by air or moisture at the ordinary temperature; it is easily dissolved in nitric acid, but is not at all acted on by hydrochloric acid, and is affected by strong sulphuric acid only when heated. Vanadium belongs to the antimony group, and, like the other members of this group, is in its chemical relations closely connected with the elements of the nitrogen group. Vanadium is an element whose combinations seem to be quite widely distributed, although occurring only in small quantity. The most abundant vanadium mineral is vanadinite, which is a vanadate of lead with chlorid of lead, and has been found in numerous widely separated localities. Vanadium resembles titanium in that it has been detected in various clays and igneous rocks. It is obtained in some quantity from the cupriferous Triassic beds of the vicinity of Mottram, Cheshire, England, in the form of the so-called mottramite, a hydrous vanadate of copper and lead.

Wiktionary

1. n. A chemical element, (symbol V) with an atomic number of 23; it is a transition metal, used in the production of special steels.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Chem.) A rare element of the nitrogen-phosphorus group, found combined, in vanadates, in certain minerals, and reduced as an infusible, grayish-white metallic powder. It is intermediate between the metals and the non-metals, having both basic and acid properties. Symbol V (or Vd, rarely). Atomic weight 50.94 (C12=12.000).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a soft silvery white toxic metallic element used in steel alloys; it occurs in several complex minerals including carnotite and vanadinite