calcium

See also: Calcium

English

Chemical element
Ca
Previous: potassium (K)
Next: scandium (Sc)

Etymology

Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from Latin calx (“lime, limestone”) because it occurs in limestone.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kăl′sē-əm, IPA^(key): /ˈkælsi.əm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

calcium (countable and uncountable, plural calciums)

2. The chemical element (Symbol Ca), with an atomic number 20. It is a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone and as silicate in many rocks.
   • 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist:

     Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: […] . The evolutionary precursor of photosynthesis is still under debate, and a new study sheds light. The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom.

3. (countable) An atom of this element.

Derived terms

• bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide
• calc-, calci-
• calcic
• calcio-
• calcium-40
• calcium-42
• calcium-43
• calcium-44
• calcium-45
• calcium-46
• calcium-48
• calcium arsenate
• calcium carbide
• calcium carbonate
• calcium chloride
• calcium cyanamide
• calcium dihydrogen phosphate
• calcium fluoride
• calcium hydride
• calcium hydroxide
• calcium light
• calcium magnesium carbonate
• calcium magnesium silicate
• calcium nitrate
• calcium oxide
• calcium peroxide
• calcium phosphate
• calcium phosphide
• calcium platinate
• calcium sulfate, calcium sulphate
• calcium sulfide, calcium sulphide
• calcium tungstate
• dicalcium
• monocalcium
• oxycalcium
• tricalcium

 

Related terms

• BSCCO
• calcia
• calcite
• calculus
• calx
• Ca²⁺

 

Translations

chemical element of atomic number 20

• Afrikaans: kalsium (af)
• Albanian: kalcium (sq)
• Arabic: كَلْسِيُوم m (kalsiyum)
• Armenian: կալցիում (hy) (kalcʻium)
• Asturian: calciu (ast) m
• Basque: kaltzio (eu)
• Belarusian: ка́льцый m (kálʹcyj)
• Breton: kalsiom, kalkiom m
• Bulgarian: ка́лций (bg) m (kálcij)
• Catalan: calci (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 鈣／钙 (koi³)

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 鈣／钙 (zh) (gài), ^{(please verify)} 钙 (zh) (gài)

• Cornish: calcyum
• Czech: vápník (cs)
• Danish: kalcium n, calcium (da) n
• Dutch: calcium (nl) n
• Esperanto: kalcio (eo)
• Estonian: kaltsium (et)
• Faroese: kalsium n
• Finnish: kalsium (fi)
• French: calcium (fr) m
• Friulian: calci
• Galician: calcio (gl) m
• Georgian: კალციუმი (ḳalciumi)
• German: Kalzium (de) n, Calcium (de) n
• Greek: ασβέστιο (el) n (asvéstio)
• Hebrew: סידן (he) (sidán), קלציום (qáltzium)
• Hindi: चूर्णातु (cūrṇātu)
• Hungarian: kalcium (hu)
• Icelandic: kalsín (is)
• Indonesian: kalsium (id), zat kapur (id)
• Interlingua: calcium
• Inuktitut: ᓴᐅᓂᒃᓴᖅ (saoniksaq)
• Irish: cailciam (ga)
• Italian: calcio (it) m
• Japanese: カルシウム (ja) (karushiumu), 石灰素 (sekkaiso)
• Kashubian: kalcéń
• Kazakh: кальций (kk) (kalsii)
• Korean: 칼슘 (ko) (kalsyum)
• Latin: calcium (la) n
• Latvian: kalcijs
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lingala: kalisu class 9a/10a
• Lithuanian: kalcis (lt)
• Luxembourgish: Kalzium
• Macedonian: калциум m (kalcium)
• Malagasy: diontsokay (mg)
• Malay: kalsium, zat kapur
• Maltese: kalċju
• Manx: kelkium
• Maori: konupūmā
• Mongolian: кальци (mn) (kalʹci)
• Navajo: káálsiiyin
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kalsium (no) n

  Nynorsk: kalsium (nn) n

• Occitan: calci (oc) m
• Persian: کلسیم (fa) (kalsiom)
• Polish: wapń (pl) m
• Portuguese: cálcio (pt) m
• Romanian: calciu (ro) n
• Russian: ка́льций (ru) m (kálʹcij)
• Scottish Gaelic: cailceam m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: калциjум m, калциj m

  Roman: kalcijum, kalcij (sh)

• Slovak: vápnik (sk) m
• Slovene: kalcij (sl)
• Spanish: calcio (es) m
• Swahili: kalisiamu
• Swedish: kalcium (sv) n
• Tajik: калсий (kalsiy)
• Tamil: சுண்ணியம் (cuṇṇiyam)
• Telugu: సున్నము (te) (sunnamu)
• Thai: แคลเซียม (th) (kɛɛl-sîiam)
• Turkish: kalsiyum (tr)
• Ukrainian: ка́льцій m (kálʹcij)
• Urdu: چورناتہ m (cūrṇātu)
• Uzbek: (kal'tsiy) кальций (uz)
• Vietnamese: canxi
• Volapük: kalsin (vo)
• Welsh: calsiwm (cy)
• West Frisian: kalsium
• Yiddish: קאַלציום m (kaltsyum)

See also

• chalk
• lime
• limestone

References

• Calcium on the British Royal Society of Chemistry's online periodic table

---

Danish

Alternative forms

• kalcium

Noun

calcium

1. calcium

Declension

Declension of calcium

neuter gender	Singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	calcium	calciummet
genitive	calciums	calciummets

---

Dutch

Chemical element
Ca
Previous: kalium (K)
Next: scandium (Sc)

Etymology

Ultimately from English calcium. Coined by Humphry Davy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑl.siˌʏm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cal‧ci‧um

Noun

calcium n (uncountable)

1. calcium [from early 19th c.]

Related terms

• kalk

---

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kal.sjɔm/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

calcium m (uncountable)

1. calcium

Related terms

• calcaire
• calcifier
• calcique

Descendants

• Lingala: kalisu

Further reading

• “calcium”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

---

Interlingua

Noun

calcium (uncountable)

1. calcium

---

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkal.ki.um/, [ˈkäɫ̪kiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkal.t͡ʃi.um/, [ˈkäl̠ʲt͡ʃium]

Etymology 1

Form of calx.

Noun

(deprecated template usage) calcium

1. genitive plural of calx

Etymology 2

Derived from calx, calcis (“chalk”) +‎ -ium (chemical element suffix).

Noun

calcium n (genitive calciī); second declension

1. (New Latin) calcium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	calcium	calcia
Genitive	calciī	calciōrum
Dative	calciō	calciīs
Accusative	calcium	calcia
Ablative	calciō	calciīs
Vocative	calcium	calcia