halogen
Americannoun
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halogens
plural
noun
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Any of a group of five nonmetallic elements with similar properties. The halogens are fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. Because they are missing an electron from their outermost shell, they react readily with most metals to form salts.
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See Periodic Table
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Origin of halogen
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Explanation
A halogen is a chemical element that forms a salt when it reacts with metal. Halogen lamps are illuminated by bulbs that contain a halogen and an inert gas. There are five halogens in the periodic table of chemical elements: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. The halogens are all highly reactive, which means they're quick to form bonds with other elements. What they often end up becoming is some kind of salt, including common table salt. In fact, the literal translation of halogen is "salt-producer," from Greek roots hals, "salt," and gen, "giving birth to."
Vocabulary lists containing halogen
Chemistry - High School
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Structure and Properties of Matter - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
He did a more-than-competent job—he was Rossini after all—but the result always reminds me of shining a halogen light into a place of hallowed dim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
"The resulting datasets are producing an improved understanding of the interactions between sea-spray aerosols, surface-coupled clouds, oil field emissions and multiphase halogen chemistry in the new Arctic."
From Science Daily ● Dec. 29, 2025
The housing for halogen bulbs is not compatible with LED bulbs, and a retrofitted car will not pass its annual MOT check-up.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2025
The beam is whiter, more focused and brighter than the more diffuse light from halogen lamps fitted in older cars.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2025
The danger bathed the world in a halogen glow that caused everything—the sweep of the rock, the orange and yellow lichens, the texture of the clouds—to stand out in brilliant relief.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
By combining different halide salts, researchers created MXenes with two or even three types of surface halogens in carefully controlled proportions.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 4, 2026
Firstly, they are two to three times as bright as traditional halogens, and their "colour temperature" is bluer and whiter, which mimics natural daylight.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
A team from France and Germany has now studied the rapid decay of molecules containing halogens.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2024
Trends in observed melting and boiling points for the halogens clearly demonstrate this effect, as seen in Table 10.1.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Descriptive.—The silver halogens, AgCI, AgBr, AgI, are very sensitive to certain light rays.
From An Introduction to Chemical Science by Rufus Phillips Williams
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
