plutonium
pronunciation
How to pronounce plutonium in British English:
UK [plu:ˈtəʊniəm]
How to pronounce plutonium in American English:
US [pluˈtoʊniəm]
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- Noun:
- a solid silvery gray radioactive transuranic element whose atoms can be split when bombarded with neutrons; found in minute quantities in uranium ores but is usually synthesized in nuclear reactors; 13 isotopes are known with the most important being pl
Word Origin
- plutonium (n.)
- transuranic element, 1942, from Pluto, the planet, + element ending -ium. Discovered at University of California, Berkeley, in 1941, the element named on suggestion of Seaborg and Wahl because it follows neptunium in the periodic table as Pluto follows Neptune in the Solar System. The name plutonium earlier had been proposed for barium and was sometimes used in this sense early 19c.