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hydrogen

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

WOTD – 7 February 2026
Chemical element
H Next: helium (He)
Hydrogen in a plasma state in a discharge tube, glowing purple as an electric current is passed through it.

Etymology

Borrowed from French hydrogène (“hydrogen”), coined by the French chemists Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737–1816) and Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) from hydro- (prefix meaning ‘water’) + -gène (suffix denoting a producer of something),[1] from the fact that water is produced as a compound when hydrogen is oxidized.

By surface analysis, hydro- (prefix meaning ‘water’) +‎ -gen (suffix denoting a producer of something).

Pronunciation

Noun

hydrogen (countable and uncountable, plural hydrogens) (chemistry)

  2. (uncountable) The lightest chemical element (symbol H), with an atomic number of 1 and atomic weight of 1.008.
    Alternative form: H (symbol)
    Our professor then reminded us that a hydrogen ion is merely a proton, and thus we should think about acid-base theory as we consider this problem further.
    • 1791, [Erasmus Darwin], “Canto I”, in The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, part I (The Economy of Vegetation), footnote, page 18:
      The ignis fatuus or Jack a lantern, ſo frequently alluded to by poets, is ſuppoſed to originate from the inflammable air, or Hydrogene, given up from moraſſes; […]
    • 1820, Sophocles, “Œdipus Tyrannus; or, Swellfoot the Tyrant. A Tragedy, in Two Acts. […]”, in Percy Bysshe Shelley, transl., edited by [Mary] Shelley, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], new edition, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1840, →OCLC, Act I, page 184:
      But my Leech—a leech / Fit to suck blood, with lubricous round rings, / Capaciously expatiative, which make / His little body like a red balloon, / As full of blood as that of hydrogen, / Sucked from men's hearts; […]
    • 1827, Edward Turner, “Section IV. Hydrogen.”, in Elements of Chemistry: Including the Recent Discoveries and Doctrines of the Science, Edinburgh: […] William Tait, […]; and Charles Tait, […], part II (Inorganic Chemistry), page 160:
      Water is the sole product of the combustion of hydrogen gas. For this important fact we are indebted to Mr. [Henry] Cavendish. He demonstrated it by burning oxygen and hydrogen gases in a dry glass vessel, when a quantity of pure water was generated exactly equal in weight to that of the gases which had disappeared.
    • 1997, Ian McEwan, chapter 1, in Enduring Love, [United Kingdom]: The Softback Preview, →OCLC, page 3:
      It was an enormous balloon filled with helium, that elemental gas forged from hydrogen in the nuclear furnace of the stars, first step along the way in the generation of multiplicity and variety of matter in the universe, including our selves and all our thoughts.
    1. (countable) An atom of this element.
      Each carbon of the ring has one hydrogen attached except for the fourth one, which is bonded to a substituent.
      • 1920 July, Wendell M[itchell] Latimer, Worth H. Rodebush, “Polarity and Ionization from the Standpoint of the Lewis Theory of Valence”, in Arthur B. Lamb, editor, The Journal of the American Chemical Society, volume XLII, number 7, Easton, Pa.: Eschenbach Printing Company [for the American Chemical Society], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1431:
        Water occupies an intermediate position and shows tendencies both to add and give up hydrogen, which are nearly balanced. Then, in terms of the Lewis theory, a free pair of electrons on one water molecule might be able to exert sufficient force on a hydrogen held by a pair of electrons on another water molecule to bind the two molecules together.
      • 1995, William H. Brown, “Alkanes and Cycloalkanes”, in Organic Chemistry, Fort Worth, Tex.; Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders College Publishing; Harcourt Brace College Publishers, →ISBN, page 62:
        [H]ydrogens are also classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary depending on the type of carbon to which each is bonded. Those attached to primary carbons are classified as primary hydrogens, those on secondary carbons are secondary hydrogens, and those on tertiary carbons are tertiary hydrogens. Hydrogen atoms in a compound can be divided into equivalent sets. Equivalent hydrogens have the same chemical environment. A direct way to determine which hydrogens in a molecule are equivalent is to replace each in turn by a "test atom," as for example a halogen atom.
  4. (uncountable) Molecular hydrogen (sense 1; symbol H2), a colourless, odourless and flammable gas at room temperature.
    A large tank of hydrogen constituted most of the bulk of that rocket.
    • 1845 February 8, “Balloons”, in Theodore Dwight, Jr., editor, American Penny Magazine, and Family Newspaper, volume I, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Express Office, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12, column 1:
      [Jacques] Charles was the first to send up a hydrogen balloon, 12 feet in diameter, which rose 3,123 feet, disappeared in the clouds, and fell at the distance of 15 miles.
    • 1991 August, Stanley E. Spangler, “Kennan, Containment, and Carrots”, in Force and Accommodation in World Politics, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.: Air University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Factors Inhibiting Accommodative Diplomacy since World War II), pages 32–33:
      As the tension between the Soviets and the United States increased from 1948 to 1950, the administration took a number of actions that [George Frost] Kennan felt narrowed the possibilities for constructive negotiations between the two nations. These actions included the decisions to build the hydrogen bomb, to maintain American troops in Japan after the formal occupation was over, to create an independent West German state, and to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
    • 2005, F. W. Petersen, S. E. T. Bullock, “Sustainable Development Indicators—Some Technological Changes Made in the South African Mining and Resources Sector to Meet the Challenge”, in Roberto C[errini] Villas-Bôas [et al.], editors, A Review on Indicators of Sustainability for the Minerals Extraction Industries, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: CETEM/CNPq/CYTED, →ISBN, part 2 (Indicators: Some Facts, Exercises and Proposals), page 162:
      To this end the Department of Science and Technology has identified the hydrogen economy and related fuel cell technologies as a "Frontier Science and Technology Area" that could potentially change the innovation course of the country's natural resources, and yield multiple social and economic benefits.
    1. (countable) A molecule of this molecular species.
  6. (uncountable) Synonym of protium (“the lightest and most common isotope of hydrogen (sense 1; symbol H, 1H, or 11H), as contrasted with deuterium and tritium”).
    Both hydrogen and deuterium are present in every glass of water that you drink, but the amount of deuterium is rather small.
    • 1969 September, Dumas A. Otterson, Robert J. Smith, “Introduction”, in Absorption of Hydrogen by Palladium and Electrical Resistivity up to Hydrogen-Palladium Atom Ratios of 0.97 (NASA Technical Note; D-5441), Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 2:
      Hydrogen is generally considered to be electronically the same as deuterium. […] Neutron diffraction experiments by Ferguson, Schindler, Tanaka, and Morita (ref. 4) revealed that, near 50K, some hydrogen had moved from interstitial octahedral sites (0, 0, 1/2; 1/2, 0, 0; …) of the palladium lattice to the tetrahedral sites (1/4, 1/4, 1/4; 3/4, 3/4; …) (O-T transitions).

Synonyms

element
molecule

Hyponyms

isotopes
molecule

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Burmese: ဟိုက်ဒရိုဂျင် (huikda.ruigyang)

Translations

See also

Periodic table of elements in English · periodic table of elements (layout · text)
Period
Group
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1 1   H
hydrogen 		Color of the number (state of matter at STP): liquid, gas, solid, synthetic, not yet been discovered 2   He
helium
2 3   Li
lithium 		4   Be
beryllium 		Blocks: d-block f-block p-block s-block 5   B
boron 		6   C
carbon 		7   N
nitrogen 		8   O
oxygen 		9   F
fluorine 		10   Ne
neon
3 11   Na
sodium 		12   Mg
magnesium 		13   Al
aluminum 		14   Si
silicon 		15   P
phosphorus 		16   S
sulfur 		17   Cl
chlorine 		18   Ar
argon
4 19   K
potassium 		20   Ca
calcium
21   Sc
scandium 		22   Ti
titanium 		23   V
vanadium 		24   Cr
chromium 		25   Mn
manganese 		26   Fe
iron 		27   Co
cobalt 		28   Ni
nickel 		29   Cu
copper 		30   Zn
zinc 		31   Ga
gallium 		32   Ge
germanium 		33   As
arsenic 		34   Se
selenium 		35   Br
bromine 		36   Kr
krypton
5 37   Rb
rubidium 		38   Sr
strontium
39   Y
yttrium 		40   Zr
zirconium 		41   Nb
niobium 		42   Mo
molybdenum 		43   Tc
technetium 		44   Ru
ruthenium 		45   Rh
rhodium 		46   Pd
palladium 		47   Ag
silver 		48   Cd
cadmium 		49   In
indium 		50   Sn
tin 		51   Sb
antimony 		52   Te
tellurium 		53   I
iodine 		54   Xe
xenon
6 55   Cs
cesium 		56   Ba
barium 		*
 71   Lu
lutetium 		72   Hf
hafnium 		73   Ta
tantalum 		74   W
tungsten 		75   Re
rhenium 		76   Os
osmium 		77   Ir
iridium 		78   Pt
platinum 		79   Au
gold 		80   Hg
mercury 		81   Tl
thallium 		82   Pb
lead 		83   Bi
bismuth 		84   Po
polonium 		85   At
astatine 		86   Rn
radon
7 87   Fr
francium 		88   Ra
radium 		**
 103   Lr
lawrencium 		104   Rf
rutherfordium 		105   Db
dubnium 		106   Sg
seaborgium 		107   Bh
bohrium 		108   Hs
hassium 		109   Mt
meitnerium 		110   Ds
darmstadtium 		111   Rg
roentgenium 		112   Cn
copernicium 		113   Nh
nihonium 		114   Fl
flerovium 		115   Mc
moscovium 		116   Lv
livermorium 		117   Ts
tennessine 		118   Og
oganesson

* lanthanides 57   La
lanthanum 		58   Ce
cerium 		59   Pr
praseodymium 		60   Nd
neodymium 		61   Pm
promethium 		62   Sm
samarium 		63   Eu
europium 		64   Gd
gadolinium 		65   Tb
terbium 		66   Dy
dysprosium 		67   Ho
holmium 		68   Er
erbium 		69   Tm
thulium 		70   Yb
ytterbium
** actinides 89   Ac
actinium 		90   Th
thorium 		91   Pa
protactinium 		92   U
uranium 		93   Np
neptunium 		94   Pu
plutonium 		95   Am
americium 		96   Cm
curium 		97   Bk
berkelium 		98   Cf
californium 		99   Es
einsteinium 		100   Fm
fermium 		101   Md
mendelevium 		102   No
nobelium

References

  1. ^ Compare “hydrogen, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2024; “hydrogen, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da
Chemical element
H Next: helium (He)

Etymology

From French hydrogène.

Noun

hydrogen n (singular definite hydrogenet, not used in plural form)

  1. hydrogen
    Synonym: brint

Declension

Declension of hydrogen
neuter
gender 		singular
indefinite definite
nominative hydrogen hydrogenet
genitive hydrogens hydrogenets

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Chemical element
H Next: helium (He)
Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Noun

hydrogen n (definite singular hydrogenet) (uncountable)

  1. hydrogen (chemical element, symbol H)

Derived terms

Norwegian Nynorsk

Chemical element
H Next: helium (He)
Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Noun

hydrogen n (definite singular hydrogenet) (uncountable)

  1. hydrogen (chemical element, symbol H)

Derived terms

Welsh

Chemical element
H Next: heliwm (He)
Welsh Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia cy

Etymology

Borrowed from English hydrogen, from French hydrogène, from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr, “water”) + γεννάω (gennáō, “I bring forth”).

Pronunciation

Noun

hydrogen m (uncountable, not mutable)

  1. hydrogen
    Synonyms: ulai, ulnwy

Derived terms

Further reading

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “hydrogen”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
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