chalcogen

American

[kal-kuh-juhn, -jen] / ˈkæl kə dʒən, -ˌdʒɛn /

noun

Chemistry. any of the elements oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium, which form the VIa group in the periodic table.

chalcogen British

/ ˈkælkəˌdʒɛn /

noun

any of the elements oxygen, sulphur, selenium, tellurium, or polonium, of group 6A of the periodic table

"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

Etymology

Origin of chalcogen

First recorded in 1960–65; chalco- ( def. ) + -gen

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

TMDs are built from stacked layers of a transition metal such as molybdenum and two layers of a chalcogen element like sulfur or selenium.

From Science Daily • Nov. 14, 2025

We ran a few models and compared our isotope predictions for each model with the actual measurements of chalcogen isotopes on Earth.

From Salon • Dec. 14, 2023

One of these was a chalcogen-containing gas that supplied chalcogen atoms for the TMC; the other gas was phosphorus, which provided further impurity atoms for TMC doping.

From Nature • Jan. 21, 2020

Kadlag, Y. & Becker, H. Highly siderophile and chalcogen element constraints on the origin of components of the Allende and Murchison meteorites.

From Nature • Nov. 28, 2017

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023