Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of the elements appearing in Group 6a of the periodic table, sharing certain chemical properties; oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, polonium, or element 116.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun inorganic chemistry Any
element of group 16 of theperiodic table -oxygen ,sulphur ,selenium ,tellurium andpolonium .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Greek khalkos, copper + –gen, since many of the important ores of copper, such as chalcopyrite, contain chalcogens.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From chalco- (“ore”) + -gen (“forming”).
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Examples
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The terms pnictogen and chalcogen are dear to my heart, yet they are just pretentious ways of saying nitrogen family and oxygen family.
Annoying and pretentious terms. Ann Althouse 2008
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This is a silver-doped chalcogenide (chalcogen is Te).
PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009
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