VALENCY
Dictionary entry overview: What does valency mean?
• VALENCY (noun)
The noun VALENCY has 3 senses:
1. the phenomenon of forming chemical bonds
2. (biology) a relative capacity to unite or react or interact as with antigens or a biological substrate
3. (chemistry) a property of atoms or radicals; their combining power given in terms of the number of hydrogen atoms (or the equivalent)
Familiarity information: VALENCY used as a noun is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
• VALENCY (noun)
Meaning:
The phenomenon of forming chemical bonds
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("valency" is a kind of...):
chemical phenomenon (any natural phenomenon involving chemistry (as changes to atoms or molecules))
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 ("valency" is a kind of...):
power; powerfulness (possession of controlling influence)
Attribute:
polyvalent (containing several antibodies each capable of counteracting a specific antigen)
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)
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 ("valency" 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 "valency"):
covalence; covalency (valence characterized by the sharing of electrons in a chemical compound; the number of pairs of electrons an atom can share)
