mercury
noun
Simple meaning
A heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
murkyereeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɝkjɚi
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
literally
A heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures
literally
A silvery-colored, toxic, metallic chemical element, liquid at room temperature, with atomic number 80 and symbol Hg.
literally
(with definite article) Ambient pressure or temperature (from the use of mercury in barometers and thermometers).
A similar edible plant (Blitum bonus-henricus), otherwise known as English mercury or allgood.
An annual plant, annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), formerly grown for its medicinal properties; French mercury, herb mercury.
Any of several types of plant.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (literally) (with definite article) Ambient pressure or temperature (from the use of mercury in barometers and thermometers).
Used this way, mercury is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use mercury
- “The planet Mercury is the closest one to the sun in our solar system.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element
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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.