Tennessine
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The chemical element (halogen) with atomic number 117. uncountable
"One of the newest members of the periodic table will likely have a familiar sound to it, even if the spelling might be a bit off: Tennessine."
Example
More examples"Given the atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118, the four new elements have been named Nihonium (Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts) and Oganesson (Og), respectively."
Etymology
From Tennessee + -ine, named after the Tennessee region. Promulgated in June 2016 by the IUPAC based on recommendations of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to honor the region where the element was discovered. Suffix -ine, rather than -ium, is due to it being a halogen (like fluorine or chlorine).
Related phrases
More for "tennessine"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.