Nihonium

//nɪˈhoʊ.ni.əm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The synthetic transactinide chemical element with atomic number 113. uncountable

    "Japanese scientists behind the discovery of element 113, the first atomic element found in Asia - indeed, the first found outside Europe or the United States - have dubbed it "nihonium" after the Japanese-language name for their country."

Example

More examples

"Nihonium is the chemical element with atomic number 113."

Etymology

From Japanese 日本 (Nihon, “Japan”) + -ium. Promulgated in June 2016 by the IUPAC based on recommendations of the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science to honor the country where the element was discovered. Doublet of nipponium.

Related phrases

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