TELLURIUM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tellurium mean? 

• TELLURIUM (noun)
  The noun TELLURIUM has 1 sense:

1. a brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur; it is used in alloys and as a semiconductor; occurs mainly as tellurides in ores of copper and nickel and silver and gold

  Familiarity information: TELLURIUM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TELLURIUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur; it is used in alloys and as a semiconductor; occurs mainly as tellurides in ores of copper and nickel and silver and gold

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

atomic number 52; Te; tellurium

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

chemical element; element (any of the more than 100 known substances (of which 92 occur naturally) that cannot be separated into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute all matter)

Holonyms ("tellurium" is a substance of...):

graphic tellurium; sylvanite (a silver-white mineral consisting of silver gold telluride; a source of gold in Australia and America)

telluride (any binary compound of tellurium with other more electropositive elements)

Derivation:

telluric (of or relating to or containing the chemical element tellurium)

 Context examples 

A synthetic non-toxic tellurium derivative, structurally similar to cisplatin, with immunostimulatory and anti-hair loss properties.

(Ammonium Trichlorotellurate, NCI Thesaurus)