strontium

[ stron-shee-uhm, -shuhm, -tee-uhm ]

/ ˈstrɒn ʃi əm, -ʃəm, -ti əm /

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noun Chemistry.

a bivalent, metallic element whose compounds resemble those of calcium, found in nature only in the combined state, as in strontianite: used in fireworks, flares, and tracer bullets. Symbol: Sr; atomic weight: 87.62; atomic number: 38; specific gravity: 2.6.

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Origin of strontium

First recorded in 1800–10; stront(ia) + -ium

OTHER WORDS FROM strontium

stron·tic

[stron-tik], /ˈstrɒn tɪk/, adjective

Words nearby strontium

strongyloidiasis, strongylosis, strontia, strontian, strontianite, strontium, strontium 90, strontium hydroxide, strontium monoxide, strontium unit, strook

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use strontium in a sentence

Instead, their foundation is pancake-like structures of super-chilled strontium atoms.
The most precise atomic clocks ever are proving Einstein right—again|Rahul Rao|February 17, 2022|Popular-Science
When people eat and drink in a specific area for a long time, their teeth absorb a small amount of strontium, an element that leaches out of the rocky ground into food and drinking water.
How technology helped archaeologists dig deeper|Annalee Newitz|April 28, 2021|MIT Technology Review
He and colleagues first boiled a lump of strontium metal and channeled that vapor down a tube.
A magnetic trap captures elusive ultracold plasma|Maria Temming|March 8, 2021|Science News
Using a second laser, the researchers knocked an electron off each atom, creating a plasma of negatively charged electrons and positive strontium ions.
A magnetic trap captures elusive ultracold plasma|Maria Temming|March 8, 2021|Science News

I placed the steel tank near the cage, uncoiled the hose attachment, unscrewed the top, and dumped in the salts of strontium.
In Search of the Unknown|Robert W. Chambers
In the absence of baryta or lime it is filtered off, and weighed as strontium carbonate, which contains 70.17 per cent.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.|Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
The solution contains the barium as baric chloride mixed, perhaps, with salts of strontium or lime.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.|Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
In this last case it may be examined for barium and strontium, the former of which will rarely be present.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.|Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
It was established that strontium-90 and cesium-137, important in fallout on land, enter the marine cycles only in minute amounts.
Atoms, Nature, and Man|Neal O. Hines

British Dictionary definitions for strontium

strontium

/ (ˈstrɒntɪəm) /

noun

a soft silvery-white element of the alkaline earth group of metals, occurring chiefly in celestite and strontianite. Its compounds burn with a crimson flame and are used in fireworks. The radioisotope strontium-90, with a half-life of 28.1 years, is used in nuclear power sources and is a hazardous nuclear fall-out product. Symbol: Sr; atomic no: 38; atomic wt: 87.62; valency: 2; relative density: 2.54; melting pt: 769°C; boiling pt: 1384°C

Word Origin for strontium

C19: from New Latin, from strontian

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 strontium

strontium

[ strŏn′chē-əm, -tē-əm ]

A soft, silvery metallic element of the alkaline-earth group that occurs naturally only as a sulfate or carbonate. One of its isotopes is used in the radiometric dating of rocks. Because strontium salts burn with a red flame, they are used to make fireworks and signal flares. Atomic number 38; atomic weight 87.62; melting point 777°C; boiling point 1,382°C; specific gravity 2.54; valence 2. See Periodic Table.