VALENCE

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does valence mean? 

• VALENCE (noun)
  The noun VALENCE has 2 senses:

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

  Familiarity information: VALENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VALENCE (noun)

Meaning:

(biology) a relative capacity to unite or react or interact as with antigens or a biological substrate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

valence; valency

Hypernyms ("valence" is a kind of...):

power; powerfulness (possession of controlling influence)

Attribute:

monovalent (containing only one kind of antibody)

multivalent (used of the association of three or more homologous chromosomes during the first division of meiosis)

bivalent; double (used of homologous chromosomes associated in pairs in synapsis)

univalent (used of a chromosome that is not paired or united with its homologous chromosome during synapsis)

polyvalent (containing several antibodies each capable of counteracting a specific antigen)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

Meaning:

(chemistry) a property of atoms or radicals; their combining power given in terms of the number of hydrogen atoms (or the equivalent)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

valence; valency

Hypernyms ("valence" is a kind of...):

power; powerfulness (possession of controlling influence)

Attribute:

monovalent; univalent (having a valence of 1)

multivalent; polyvalent (having more than one valence, or having a valence of 3 or higher)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "valence"):

covalence; covalency (valence characterized by the sharing of electrons in a chemical compound; the number of pairs of electrons an atom can share)