periodic table

[ peer-ee-od-ik, peer- ]
See synonyms for periodic table on Thesaurus.com
nounChemistry.
  1. a table illustrating the periodic system, in which the chemical elements, formerly arranged in the order of their atomic weights and now according to their atomic numbers, are shown in related groups.

Origin of periodic table

1
First recorded in 1890–95

Words Nearby periodic table

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use periodic table in a sentence

  • Enter the “hydrogen rainbow,” a color-coded system for describing the many ways to convert the lightest element on the periodic table into energy.

  • Rare earths, also known as rare-earth metals, are made up of the 17 metallic elements on the periodic table essential to many high-tech devices, including smartphones, televisions, computers and electric vehicles.

    The Climate Change Cash Grab | Sean Culligan | April 10, 2021 | Ozy
  • By the time the act was passed, scientists knew coal ash contained trace metals such as arsenic, chromium, lead and other chemicals recognizable from the periodic table, all of which could slowly infiltrate groundwater.

    The Coal Plant Next Door | by Max Blau for Georgia Health News | March 22, 2021 | ProPublica
  • Sams then rattled off other coal-ash contaminants that the tests had found, words most residents had only ever heard while studying the periodic table during chemistry class.

    The Coal Plant Next Door | by Max Blau for Georgia Health News | March 22, 2021 | ProPublica
  • In this state, August Kekule, saw the structure of benzene, Mary Shelley found the idea for her iconic novel Frankenstein, and Dmitri Mendeleev discovered the periodic table of the chemical elements.

British Dictionary definitions for periodic table

periodic table

/ (ˌpɪərɪˈɒdɪk) /


noun
  1. a table of the elements, arranged in order of increasing atomic number, based on the periodic law. Elements having similar chemical properties and electronic structures appear in vertical columns (groups)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for Periodic Table

Periodic Table

  1. A table in which the chemical elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number. Elements with similar properties are arranged in the same column (called a group), and elements with the same number of electron shells are arranged in the same row (called a period).

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.