iridium
noun/ɪˈɹɪd.i.əm/
Etymology From international scientific vocabulary, from New Latin iridium, from Classical Latin iris + -ium, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”), because of the bright colour of many of the element's salts.
1
A chemical element with an atomic number of 77: a very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group.
- Iridium is extremely rare on the surface of the earth but much more common in meteorites.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 75:
2
A single atom of this element.
- Derived terms
25 terms
diiridium, eka-iridium, heterochromia iridium, iridarsenite, iridate, iridian, iridiate, iridic, iridiferous, iridio-, iridious, iridite, iridium black, iridium oxide, iridium-pointed, iridium tetrachloride, iridium trichloride, iridosmine, organoiridium, osmiridium, platiniridium, platino-iridium, platinum-iridium, radioiridium, triiridium- Related terms
- iridescence, iridin, iridiosmium, iridise, iridize, iris