Compound

How it is used

A core word in every course and lab. Elements combine or react to form a compound, and chemists synthesize, isolate, purify and name compounds. Do not confuse it with a mixture, whose parts are not chemically bonded.

Example sentences

1. The new compound was purified by column chromatography and characterized by NMR.

2. Iron and sulfur form a compound when you heat them together.

Common collocations

• chemical compound
• ionic compound
• form a compound
• synthesize a compound
• unknown compound

Related terms

• elementA pure substance made of only one kind of atom, all with the same number of protons. It cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical reactions.
• moleculeA group of two or more atoms held together by covalent bonds. It is the smallest particle of a substance such as water or oxygen gas that still has that substance's chemical properties.
• organic compoundA compound built mainly from carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen, often with oxygen, nitrogen or other elements. Fuels, plastics, drugs and most molecules of living things belong here.
• ionic bondThe strong attraction between positive and negative ions that forms when one atom, usually a metal, transfers electrons to another, usually a nonmetal. Sodium chloride is the classic case.
• covalent bondA chemical bond in which two atoms share one or more pairs of electrons. It usually forms between nonmetal atoms, as in H₂, H₂O and CH₄.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• compound · Linguistics & Grammar

More terms: Chemical Bonding and Structure

• electronegativity
• hydrogen bond
• intermolecular forces
• polar
• Lewis structure