Definitions

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

  • noun A colorless, odorless, noble gas element found in minute quantities in the atmosphere, extracted commercially from liquefied air and used in stroboscopic, bactericidal, and laser-pumping lamps. Atomic number 54; atomic weight 131.29; melting point −111.74°C; boiling point −108.09°C; density (gas) 5.89 grams per liter; specific gravity (liquid, at −109°C) 2.95; valence 0, 2, 4, 6. cross-reference: Periodic Table.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In chem., the heaviest of the five recently discovered elementary substances present in gaseous form in the atmosphere.

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

  • noun (Chem.) A very heavy, inert gaseous element of the noble gas group, occurring in the atmosphere in the proportion of one volume is about 20 millions. It was discovered by Ramsay and Travers in 1898. It can be condensed to a liquid boiling at -107° C., and to a solid which melts at -111.9° C. Symbol Xe (formely also X); atomic number 54; atomic weight 131.3.

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

  • noun A heavy, gaseous chemical element (symbol Xe) of the noble gases group with an atomic number of 54.

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

  • noun a colorless odorless inert gaseous element occurring in the earth's atmosphere in trace amounts

Etymologies

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

[From Greek, neuter of xenos, foreign, strange; see xeno–.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ξένον, neuter of ξένος (xenos, "foreign, strange").

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Examples

  • While krypton has a considerable vapour pressure at the temperature of boiling air, the vapour pressure of xenon is hardly appreciable; hence their separation, although tedious, presented no particular difficulty.

    Sir William Ramsay - Nobel Lecture 1966

  • The word Xenon comes from the Greek word xenon which means stranger it was discovered by Sir William Ramsay in 1898. has an Atomic Number of 86, the Atomic Symbol Rn, and the Atomic Mass of 222. 018g / mol.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The word Xenon comes from the Greek word xenon which means stranger it was discovered by Sir William Ramsay in 1898.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The word Xenon comes from the Greek word xenon which means stranger it was discovered by Sir William Ramsay in 1898.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • I’ll be using a Nokia N82, which has an amazing 5-megapixel camera, brilliant in every sense of the word xenon flash and built-in GPS.

    Strange Attractor » 2008 » August 2009

  • Now, it's important to note this gas, it's called xenon 133.

    CNN Transcript May 25, 2009 2009

  • The radioactive gas xenon, which is often the byproduct of unexpected nuclear fission, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant during tests.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph Staff 2011

  • Tepco said it may have found xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission, while examining gases taken from the reactor, according to an e-mailed statement today.

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2011

  • The radioactive gas xenon, which is often the byproduct of unexpected nuclear fission, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant during tests.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph Staff 2011

  • Nuclear explosions produce an excited form called xenon-133m, in which the atomic nucleus is boosted to a higher-energy state, but it is not known exactly how sensitive detectors are to this form because there has been no way to make pure samples of xenon-133m with which to test them.

    New Scientist - Online News 2010

Comments

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  • Can be spelled with the Periodic Table of Elements symbols: XeNoN

    December 12, 2006

  • Not to be confused with a certain warrior princess.

    February 14, 2007

  • Xe

    December 2, 2007