valency

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the phenomenon of forming chemical bonds
  2. noun (biology) a relative capacity to unite or react or interact as with antigens or a biological substrate
  3. noun (chemistry) a property of atoms or radicals; their combining power given in terms of the number of hydrogen atoms (or the equivalent)

Etymology

From Late Latin valentia and Latin valentia (“bodily strength; health; vigour”) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state). Valentia is derived from valēns (“healthy, strong, vigorous”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); while valēns is the present active participle of valeō (“to be healthy, sound, or well; to be strong; to have influence or power, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to rule; powerful, strong”). Sense 1 (“combining capacity of an atom”) and sense 3 (“number of arguments a verb can have”) are possibly from valence + -y.

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