selenium

See also: Selenium and sélénium

English

Chemical element
Se
Previous: arsenic (As)
Next: bromine (Br)

Etymology

From French sélénium, the name coined by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1818 from Ancient Greek σελήνη (selḗnē, “moon”) in reference to original confusion with the similar element tellurium.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: sĭlēn′ēəm, səlēn′ēəm, IPA^(key): /sɪˈliːni.əm/, /səˈliːni.əm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːniəm

Noun

selenium (usually uncountable, plural seleniums)

2. A nonmetallic chemical element (symbol Se) with an atomic number of 34, used mainly in glassmaking and pigments and as a semiconductor.

   Hypernym: chalcogen

   • 2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 4:

     Pluck almost any cell from your body and it will have a million or more selenium atoms in it.

3. A single atom of this element.

Derived terms

• hydroselenic acid
• metallic selenium
• selane
• selen-
• selenate
• seleniate
• selenic acid
• selenide
• seleniferous
• selenio-, seleno-
• selenious acid
• selenite
• selenium cell
• selenium dioxide
• selenium eye
• selenium hexafluoride
• selenium hydride
• selenium oxide
• selenium sulfide, selenium sulphide
• selenium yeast
• seleniuretted
• selenous
• selenyl

 

Translations

chemical element

• Afrikaans: seleen (af), selenium (af)
• Albanian: selen ?
• Arabic: سِلِينْيُوم m (silinyum)
• Armenian: սելեն (hy) (selen)
• Asturian: seleniu (ast) m
• Basque: selenioa
• Belarusian: селе́н m (sjeljén)
• Breton: seleniom ?
• Bulgarian: селе́н (bg) m (selén)
• Catalan: seleni (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 硒 (zh) (xī)

• Cornish: selenyum ?
• Czech: selen (cs) m
• Danish: selen (da) n
• Dutch: seleen (nl) n, selenium (nl) n
• Esperanto: seleno (eo)
• Estonian: seleen (et)
• Faroese: selen n
• Finnish: seleeni (fi)
• French: sélénium (fr) m
• Friulian: seleni ?
• Galician: selenio (gl) m
• Georgian: სელენი (seleni)
• German: Selen (de) n
• Greek: σελήνιο (el) n (selínio)
• Hebrew: סלניום (he) m (selenyum)
• Hindi: मेचाग्नि ? (mecāgni)
• Hungarian: szelén (hu)
• Icelandic: selen (is) n
• Interlingua: selenium
• Irish: seiléiniam (ga) m
• Italian: selenio (it) m
• Japanese: セレン (ja) (seren)
• Kashubian: selén ?
• Kazakh: селен (kk) (selen)
• Khmer: សេលេញ៉ូម (seeleiñoum)
• Korean: 셀렌 (ko) (sellen), 셀레늄 (sellenyum)
• Latin: selēnium (la) n
• Latvian: selēns m
• Limburgish: seleen (li) n
• Lingala: seleni class 9a/10a
• Lithuanian: selenas (lt) m
• Luxembourgish: Selen ?
• Macedonian: селе́н m (selén)
• Malay: selenium
• Maltese: selenju m
• Manx: shellainium ?
• Mongolian: селен (mn) (selen)
• Norwegian: selen (no) n
• Occitan: selèni m
• Polish: selen (pl) m
• Portuguese: selénio (pt) m (Portugal), selênio (pt) m (Brazil)
• Romanian: seleniu (ro) n
• Russian: селе́н (ru) m (selén)
• Scottish Gaelic: selenium m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: се̏ле̄н m, сѐле̄ниј m, селенијум m

  Roman: sȅlēn (sh) m, sèlēnij (sh) m, selenijum m

• Slovak: selén (sk) m
• Slovene: selen (sl) m
• Spanish: selenio (es) m
• Swedish: selen (sv) n
• Tagalog: selenyo
• Tajik: селен (selen)
• Tamil: செங்கந்தகம் (ceṅkantakam)
• Thai: ซีลีเนียม (sii-lii-nîiam)
• Turkish: selenyum (tr)
• Ukrainian: селе́н m (selén)
• Uzbek: selen (uz)
• Welsh: seleniwm (cy) m
• West Frisian: seleen ?

References

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Selenium”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “selenium”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.

See also

• selenium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Melusine, emulsine, semilune, seminule

Afrikaans

Chemical element
Se
Previous: arseen (As)
Next: broom (Br)

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

selenium (uncountable)

1. Synonym of seleen (“selenium”)

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsɛlɛːnɪjum]
• Hyphenation: se‧le‧nium

Noun

selenium n

1. Alternative form of selen

Declension

Declension of selenium (semisoft neuter foreign)

	singular	plural
nominative	selenium	selenia
genitive	selenia	selenií
dative	seleniu	seleniím
accusative	selenium	selenia
vocative	selenium	selenia
locative	seleniu	seleniích
instrumental	seleniem	selenii

Further reading

• “selenium”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “selenium”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin selēnium, a word coined by Swedish chemist Berzelius in 1818, from Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, “moon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈleː.ni.ʏm/, /seːˈleː.ni.ʏm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: se‧le‧ni‧um

Noun

selenium n (uncountable)

1. selenium [from 1818]

   Synonym: seleen

Latin

Chemical element
Se
Previous: arsenicum (As)
Next: bromium (Br)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, “moon”) -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /seˈleː.ni.um/, [s̠ɛˈɫ̪eːniʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈle.ni.um/, [seˈlɛːnium]

Noun

selēnium n (genitive selēniī); second declension

1. (New Latin) selenium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	selēnium	selēnia
genitive	selēniī	selēniōrum
dative	selēniō	selēniīs
accusative	selēnium	selēnia
ablative	selēniō	selēniīs
vocative	selēnium	selēnia

Malay

Chemical element
Se
Previous: arsenik (As)
Next: bromin (Br)

Etymology

From English selenium, from New Latin, from Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [selɛniom]
• Rhymes: -iom, -jom, -om

Noun

selenium

1. selenium (chemical element)

Romanian

Noun

selenium n (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of seleniu

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	selenium	seleniumul
genitive-dative	selenium	seleniumului
vocative	seleniumule