Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brittle, silvery-white, rare metallic element usually found in combination with gold and other metals, produced commercially as a byproduct of the electrolytic refining of copper and used in compact discs, semiconductors, ceramics, and blasting caps and (in the form of bismuth telluride) in thermoelectric devices. In alloys it improves the machinability of stainless steel or copper, and increases the durability and hardness of lead. Atomic number 52; atomic weight 127.60; melting point 449.5°C; boiling point 988°C; specific gravity 6.23 (20°C); valence 2, 4, 6. cross-reference: Periodic Table.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as tellurion.
  • noun Chemical symbol, Te; atomic weight, 125. One of the rarer elements, occurring in nature in small quantity in the native state and also in combination with various metals, as with gold and silver in the form of graphic tellurium, or sylvanite, with gold, lead, and antimony as nagyagite, and in several other mostly very rare mineral combinations.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) A rare nonmetallic element, analogous to sulphur and selenium, occasionally found native as a substance of a silver-white metallic luster, but usually combined with metals, as with gold and silver in the mineral sylvanite, with mercury in Coloradoite, etc. Symbol Te. Atomic weight 125.2.
  • noun (Min.) See Sylvanite.
  • noun (Min.) nagyagite; -- called also black tellurium.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The chemical element with atomic number 52. Symbol: Te.
  • noun A variant spelling of tellurion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur; it is used in alloys and as a semiconductor; occurs mainly as tellurides in ores of copper and nickel and silver and gold

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin tellūs, tellūr-, earth (by contrast with uranium, under a conception of the latter as an element of the heavens because of its being named after the planet Uranus).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin tellus ("earth") + -ium

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin tellus ("earth").

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Examples

  • The name tellurium came from the Latin word tellus meaning earth.

    Tellurium 2008

  • Hazmat tested the white powdery substance and it appeared it's called tellurium, which is a silvery, white in color and it has a metallic type luster.

    CNN Transcript Jan 11, 2007 2007

  • Bottom line, five people who have been exposed to this substance called tellurium as you explained to us Teri, have gone through the decontamination process or are continuing to go through the decontamination process.

    CNN Transcript Jan 11, 2007 2007

  • Commodity costs, I think you are referring to tellurium, which is the issue for our type of industry.

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2010

  • The town of Telluride in Colorado was named after the element tellurium, which is often found with gold, and brought about the famous fool's gold rush in Australia.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Jon Carroll 2010

  • The town of Telluride in Colorado was named after the element tellurium, which is often found with gold, and brought about the famous fool's gold rush in Australia.

    SFGate: Entertainment Jon Carroll 2010

  • The town of Telluride in Colorado was named after the element tellurium, which is often found with gold, and brought about the famous fool's gold rush in Australia.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Jon Carroll 2010

  • UPDATE 2:02 am 1/12/07: The powder was "tellurium:"

    Archive 2007-01-07 Sinfonian 2007

  • UPDATE 2:02 am 1/12/07: The powder was "tellurium:"

    Powder scare at Palm Beach County Courthouse Sinfonian 2007

  • Today, commercial solar cells have been capable of achieving a power-conversion efficiency of about 9 percent to 11 percent, though they are based on rare, expensive-to-procure elements such as tellurium and indium.

    Techworld Australia News 2010

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  • Te

    December 1, 2007