Chemical Symbol



See also chemical formula.

A chemical symbol is an abbreviation or short representation of the name of a chemical element, generally assigned in relation to its Latin language name. Natural elements all have symbols of one or two letters; some man-made elements have temporary symbols of three letters.

Chemical s ymbols are listed in the periodic table and are used as shorthand and in chemical equations, e.g., 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O Because chemical symbols are often derived from the Latin or Greek language name of the element, they may not bear much similarity to the common English language name, e.g., Na for sodium (Latin natrium) and Au for gold (Latin aurum).

In China, each chemical element is assigned an Chinese character as its symbol; most of them have been explicitly created for this purpose (see Chinese characters for chemical elements).

Chemical symbols may also be changed to show if one particular isotope of an atom that is specified, as well as to show other attributes such as ionization and oxidation state of a chemical compound.

Examples of families

Examples of physical properties

Examples of chemical properties:

For complete listings of the chemical elements and their symbols, see:

External links