calcium
/ˈkælsi.əm/noun
calcium is spelled C-A-L-C-I-U-M: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, calcium means “The chemical element (symbol Ca) with atomic number 20: a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of calcium is calciums.
How many letters and syllables are in calcium?
| Letters | 7: C-A-L-C-I-U-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.6 times per million words; the 9,313th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is calcium?
Calcium appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce calcium?
- US /ˈkælsi.əm/
- /ˈkalʃɪəm/
- /ˈkæl.ʃum/
Calcium has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-calcium.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-calcium.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of calcium
- calciums plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does calcium mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The chemical element (symbol Ca) with atomic number 20: a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone and as silicate in many rocks.
- 2
An atom of this element.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate calcium?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of calcium: calc..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Calcium in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense chemical element of atomic number 20:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does calcium come from?
Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from Latin calx (“lime, limestone”) because it occurs in limestone. By surface analysis, calc- + -ium.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).