valence
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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7 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "valence", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "valence" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "valence" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
valence is aEnglishnoun. It means: The combining capacity of an atom, functional group, or radical determined by the number of atoms of hydrogen with which it will unite, or the number of electrons that it will gain, lose, or share ... Pronounced /ˈveɪl(ə)ns/. Often confused with Vance and Valerie.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | valence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈveɪl(ə)ns/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #33,072 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for valence is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈveɪl(ə)ns/. Corpus data places it at rank #33,072 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for valence, with forms such as "avlence", "vaelnce", and "valance". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Vance", "Valerie", "violence", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology 1 sense 1.1 (“combining capacity of an atom”) and etymology 1 sense 3 (“one-dimensional value assigned by a person to an object, situation, or state”) are borrowed from German Valenz + English -ence (suffix meaning ‘having the condition or state o… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is valence, spelled V-A-L-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The combining capacity of an atom, functional group, or radical determined by the number of atoms of hydrogen with which it will unite, or the number of electrons that it will gain, lose, or share when it combines with other atoms, etc.
- 2The number of binding sites of a molecule, such as an antibody or antigen.
- 3The number of arguments that a verb can have, including its subject, ranging from zero to three or, less commonly, four.
- 4A one-dimensional value assigned by a person to an object, situation, or state, that can usually be positive (causing a feeling of attraction) or negative (repulsion).
- 5The value which a person places on something.
- 6For a correspondence T on a curve: a number k such that the divisors T(P)+kP are all linearly equivalent.
Etymology
Etymology 1 sense 1.1 (“combining capacity of an atom”) and etymology 1 sense 3 (“one-dimensional value assigned by a person to an object, situation, or state”) are borrowed from German Valenz + English -ence (suffix meaning ‘having the condition or state of’). Valenz is a clipping of Quantivalenz (“(archaic) valence in chemistry”), from English quantivalence, from Latin quantus (“how much”) + English -i- (interfix inserted between morphemes of Latin origin for ease of pronunciation) + Latin valentia (“bodily strength; health; vigour”) (whence Late Middle English valence (“medicinal preparation made from plants”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to rule; powerful, strong”)). Quantivalence was coined by F. O. Ward who communicated it to the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818–1892), leading him to coin the German word Quantivalenz. Doublet of value. Etymology 1 sense 2 (“number of arguments a verb can have”) was formed by analogy to the use of the word in chemistry: see above.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: avlence,vaelnce,valance,valecne,valencce,valenec,valennce,vallence,valnece,vlaence,vvalence
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for valence
Misspelling Variants of "valence"
Frequency rank: #33,072 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter V in our English index: