Chelate

//ˈkiːleɪt// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A chelate compound.

    "In the early 1960s, a study was conducted in which gestating rats were given diets containing the same mineral content of mineral salts or amino acid chelates."

  2. 2
    a heterocyclic compound having a metal ion attached by coordinate bonds to at least two nonmetal ions wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    to form a chelate compound by combining a metal atom to form a ring. transitive
  2. 2
    form a chelate, in chemistry wordnet
  3. 3
    to remove heavy metals from the bloodstream using a chelate (such as EDTA). transitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    Having chelae, or in the form of a chela.[from 19th c.]
  2. 2
    Relating to chelation.
Adjective
  1. 1
    having or resembling chelae or claws wordnet
  2. 2
    relating to or characterized by chelation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
chelate compoundchelated

Example

More examples

"In the early 1960s, a study was conducted in which gestating rats were given diets containing the same mineral content of mineral salts or amino acid chelates."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From chela + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Etymology 2

From chela + -ate (forms nouns related to chemistry, mainly salts and esters of an acid).

Etymology 3

From chelate compound + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Related phrases

chelate complexchelate compound

More for "chelate"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.