calcium
noun
Simple meaning
The chemical element with atomic number 20: a soft.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kalseeuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkælsiəm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The chemical element with atomic number 20: a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone and as silicate in many rocks.
countable
An atom of this element.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The chemical element with atomic number 20: a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone and as silicate in many rocks.
Used this way, calcium is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use calcium
- “Milk is a good source of calcium for strong bones and teeth.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A bicarbonate that is a major cause of hard water.
Any of a class of drugs that block the flow of the electrolyte calcium (either in nerve cell conduction or smooth muscle contraction of the heart).
A grey salt of calcium (CaC) used in making acetylene.
A salt found in nature as chalk or calcite or aragonite or limestone.
Any of a class of drugs that block the flow of the electrolyte calcium (either in nerve cell conduction or smooth muscle contraction of the heart).
A deliquescent salt.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.