valency

English

Alternative forms

• valence

Pronunciation

• enPR: vā'lənsē, IPA^(key): /ˈveɪlənsi/

Noun

valency (countable and uncountable, plural valencies) (mostly UK)

1. (graph theory) The number of edges connected to a vertex in a graph.

   Synonym: degree

2. (especially chemistry) Valence.
3. (linguistics) The capacity of a verb to take a specific number of arguments.

   Synonym: valence

4. The capacity of something to combine with other things.
   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎^[1], page 10:

     Some etymons appear to have greater valency than others when it comes to the formation of portmanteau words.

Derived terms

• bivalency
• covalency
• electrovalency
• hypervalency
• monovalency
• multivalency
• paucivalency
• pentavalency
• polyvalency
• quadrivalency
• tetravalency
• univalency