sodium
sodium Lexical Profile
sodium Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Sodium ions or compounds (especially sodium chloride) present in food and drink as an essential dietary mineral and electrolyte.
"Her doctor advised her to read nutrition labels carefully and reduce her daily intake of sodium."
A soft, silver-white, highly reactive metallic chemical element of the alkali metal group (atomic number 11, symbol Na), which occurs abundantly in nature in combined forms such as common salt.
"In chemistry class, the teacher demonstrated how pure sodium reacts violently when dropped into water."
Word Nuance & Usage
In nutrition and everyday dietary contexts, "sodium" is frequently used loosely to refer to sodium chloride (common table salt), even though elemental sodium is a highly reactive metal.
• Rhymes for sodium
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in 1807 by the English chemist Humphry Davy from "soda" (from Medieval Latin sodanum, likely of Arabic origin) combined with the chemical suffix "-ium," after he isolated the element from caustic soda.