Definitions

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

  • noun A soft, silvery, malleable, ductile rare-earth element that develops a characteristic green tarnish in air. It occurs naturally with other rare earths in monazite and bastnaesite and is used to color glass and ceramics yellow, as a core material for carbon arcs, and in metallic alloys. Atomic number 59; atomic weight 140.908; melting point 931°C; boiling point 3,520°C; specific gravity 6.773; valence 3, 4. cross-reference: Periodic Table.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the two elements into which, in 1885, Auer von Welsbach succeeded in resolving what had previously been known as didymium. See neodymium.

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

  • noun (Chem.) An elementary substance, one of the constituents of didymium; -- so called from the green color of its salts. Symbol Ps. Atomic weight 143.6.

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

  • noun A metallic chemical element (symbol Pr) with an atomic number of 59.

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

  • noun a soft yellowish-white trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group; can be recovered from bastnasite or monazite by an ion-exchange process

Etymologies

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

[German Praseodym : Greek praseos, variant of prasios, leek-green (from prason, leek) + German -dym, didymium.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πράσιος ("leek-green") + didymium.

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Examples

  • To slow down the light, the researchers used a silicate crystal doped with a rare-earth element called praseodymium .

    This Laser Trick's a Quantum Leap 2005

  • I doubt if your people would take kindly to ... say ... catastrophic inflation when we released several tons of the praseodymium which is your standard, followed by depression and unemployment when a number of key corporations retired from business. '

    The Long Way Home Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1955

  • China supplies at least 95% of the world's rare earths -- 17 chemical elements with hard-to-pronounce names such as praseodymium and yttrium -- essential for a wide range of high-tech devices and green technologies.

    IndustryWeek Forums - Chain Reactions 2009

  • Among other things, it recommends that a defense agency that oversees strategic stockpiles develop "risk mitigation strategies" for some elements, including dysprosium, yttrium, praseodymium and neodymium.

    Pentagon Says China Hold on Key Elements Is Risky Nathan Hodge 2011

  • Magnets made with the rare-earth minerals neodymium and praseodymium are uniquely strong, making them valuable components in wind turbines and computer hard drives.

    Malaysia Stalls New Project David Fickling 2011

  • Didymium, at first thought to be an element, is a mixture of praseodymium and neodymium.

    Week in Words Erin McKean 2011

  • Zume Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Molycorp, at its Mountain Pass facility, mines rare-earth elements like neodymium and praseodymium, upper right, which are used in the manufacturing of products like Apple's iPad.

    Molycorp Pays Off for Buyout Believers Gregory Zuckerman 2011

  • Chinese prices of neodymium oxide have fallen 35% since June; praseodymium oxide has shed 17% and lanthanum oxide 21% in the period, according to data from Australian rare earth producer Lynas Corp.

    China Baotou to Halt Rare Earth Operations for One Month Chuin-Wei Yap 2011

  • The SRB has also been accumulating aluminium, zinc, nickel, and rarer metals such as titanium, indium (thin-film technology), rhodium (catalytic converters) and praseodymium (glass).

    Mike Griffin, I want to Teach, Money was not an Issue - NASA Watch 2009

  • Didymium is a combination of two rare-earth elements, praseodymium and neodymium.

    Corrections 2010

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  • Pr.

    December 16, 2007