aqua regia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aqua regia (literally “royal water”), so named because it is one of the few solvents capable of dissolving noble metals.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑː.kwə ˈɹeɪ.ɡi.ə/, /ˌækwə ˈɹiːdʒi.ə/, enPR: ăʹkwə-rēʹjē-ə

• Audio (US):

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Noun

aqua regia (uncountable) (abbreviation A.R.)

1. (inorganic chemistry, archaic) A mixture of three parts concentrated hydrochloric acid to one part concentrated nitric acid.
   • 2005, D.J. Krus, Elements of Propositional Calculus

     Consider another example. 'If gold is placed in aqua regia then it dissolves.' Aqua regia is a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids that dissolves gold or platinum. Observation of gold dissolving in aqua regia (argument 1 1) lends credence to the above conditional statement.
     Not placing the gold into aqua regia and gold not dissolving (argument 0 0) does not disprove the truth-value of this conditional.

   Synonyms: aqua regis, nitro-hydrochloric acid

Related terms

• regaline

Coordinate terms

• aqua fortis

Translations

mixture of acids

• Arabic: مَاء مَلَكِيّ m (māʔ malakiyy)
• Bengali: অম্লরাজ (bn) (omloraj)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 王水 (zh) (wángshuǐ), 王酸 (wángsuān)

• Danish: kongevand n
• Dutch: koningswater (nl) n
• Finnish: kuningasvesi (fi)
• French: eau régale (fr) f
• German: Königswasser (de) n
• Gujarati: અમ્લરાજ (amlarāj)
• Hindi: अम्लराज (amlarāj)
• Hungarian: királyvíz (hu)
• Italian: acqua regia f
• Japanese: 王水 (ja) (おうすい, ōsui)
• Korean: 왕수(王水) (wangsu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: auqa regia
• Malay: air raja, akua regia
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kongevann n

• Persian: تیزاب سلطانی (fa) (tizâb-e soltani)
• Polish: woda królewska (pl) f
• Portuguese: água régia (pt) f
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ца́рская во́дка (ru) f (cárskaja vódka)
• Spanish: agua regia (es) f
• Swedish: kungsvatten (sv) n
• Tamil: சுவர்ணபேதி (cuvarṇapēti)
• Turkish: kral suyu (tr)
• Ukrainian: ца́рська вода́ (uk) f (cársʹka vodá), ца́рська горі́лка (uk) f (cársʹka horílka)
• Vietnamese: nước cường toan, cường thuỷ

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Latin

Etymology

aqua (“water”) +‎ regia (“royal”). From being a liquid capable of dissolving the most incorruptible of metals, gold.

Alternative forms

• aqua regis

Noun

aqua regia

1. (alchemy) aqua regia

Coordinate terms

• aqua fortis

Descendants

• → English: aqua regia