ion
noun
Simple meaning
An atom or group of atoms bearing an electrical charge, such as the sodium and chlorine atoms in a salt solution.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
eyeuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈaɪən
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
An atom or group of atoms bearing an electrical charge, such as the sodium and chlorine atoms in a salt solution.
Greek mythology
Son of Creusa and Xuthus, and the ancestor of Ionian people.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An atom or group of atoms bearing an electrical charge, such as the sodium and chlorine atoms in a salt solution.
Used this way, ion 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
- Not strongly marked
- 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 ion
- “An ion is an atom that carries an electric charge.”
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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.