ion

Ads

Visit The Green Giraffe www.thegreengiraffe.com/ HURRY! Huge Allergy Season Savings on Top-Rated Air & Water Purifiers

Dictionary.com's Mobile Apps www.dictionary.com/mobile Ad-Free, Offline Content, Audio Pronunciation and More! Take Millions of Words With You Everywhere. Download Now!

noun Physics, Chemistry.

an electrically charged atom or group of atoms formed by the loss or gain of one or more electrons, as a cation (positive ion) which is created by electron loss and is attracted to the cathode in electrolysis, or as an anion (negative ion) which is created by an electron gain and is attracted to the anode. The valence of an ion is equal to the number of electrons lost or gained and is indicated by a plus sign for cations and a minus sign for anions, thus: Na ⁺ , Cl−, Ca ⁺⁺ , S ⁼ .

one of the electrically charged particles formed in a gas by electric discharge or the like.

Relevant Questions

What Is An Ion?

What Are Negative Ions?

What Are Ions?

How are Ions Formed?

Origin:
< Greek ión going, neuter present participle of iénai to go; term introduced by Michael Faraday in 1834

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

Classical Mythology. the eponymous ancestor of the Ionians: a son of Apollo and Creusa who is abandoned by his mother but returns to become an attendant in Apollo's temple at Delphi.

( italics ) a drama on this subject (415? b.c.) by Euripides.

00:10

Ion is always a great word to know.

So is net movement. Does it mean:

movement measured by the force capacity on one side against the force capacity on the other

substance of chromosomes portion of cell nucleus that stains with basic dyes

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

a suffix, appearing in words of Latin origin, denoting action or condition, used in Latin and in English to form nouns from stems of Latin adjectives ( communion; union ), verbs ( legion; opinion ), and especially past participles ( allusion; creation; fusion; notion; torsion ).

Also, -ation, -ition, -tion.

Compare -cion, -xion.

Origin:
< Latin -iōn- (stem of -iō) suffix forming nouns, especially on past participle stems; replacing Middle English -ioun < Anglo-French < Latin -iōn-

Ionic.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

Link To ion

Collins

World English Dictionary

ion (ˈaɪən, -ɒn)

—n
	cation See also anion an electrically charged atom or group of atoms formed by the loss or gain of one or more electrons

[C19: from Greek, literally: going, from ienai to go]

-ion

—*suffix forming nouns*
	-ation Compare -tion indicating an action, process, or state: creation; objection

[from Latin -iōn-, -io]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

ion

1834, introduced by Eng. physicist and chemist Michael Faraday (suggested by the Rev. William Whewell, Eng. polymath), coined from Gk. ion, neut. prp. of ienai "go," from PIE base *ei- "to go, to walk" (cf. Gk. eimi "I go;" L. ire "to go," iter "a way;" O.Ir. ethaim "I go;" Ir. bothar "a road" (from

*bou-itro- "cows' way"), Gaulish eimu "we go," Goth. iddja "went," Skt. e'ti "goes," imas "we go," ayanam "a going, way;" Avestan ae'iti "goes;" O.Pers. aitiy "goes;" Lith. eiti "to go;" O.C.S. iti "go;" Bulgarian ida "I go;" Rus. idti "to go"). So called because ions move toward the electrode of opposite charge. Ionosphere coined 1926 by R.A. Watson-Watt.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

ion i·on (ī'ən, ī'ŏn')
n.
An atom or a group of atoms that has acquired a net electric charge by gaining or losing one or more electrons.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

ion

(ī'ən, ī'ŏn') Pronunciation Key
An atom or a group of atoms that has an electric charge. Positive ions, or cations, are formed by the loss of electrons; negative ions, or anions, are formed by the gain of electrons.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

ion [(eye-uhn, eye-on)]

An atom that has either lost or gained one or more electrons, so that it has an electrical charge. Ions can be either positively or negatively charged.

American Heritage

Abbreviations & Acronyms

ION
Institute of Nutrition

Ion.
Ionic