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valence

va·lence/ˈveɪləns/noun

valence is spelled V-A-L-E-N-C-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (va·lence). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, valence 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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of valence is valences.

How many letters and syllables are in valence?

Letters7: V-A-L-E-N-C-E
Syllables2: va·lence
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 32,798th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is valence?

Valence appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th 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 valence?

  • UK /ˈveɪl(ə)ns/
  • US /ˈveɪləns/

As a noun (“Alternative spelling of valance”): /ˈvæl(ə)ns/, /ˈvæləns/.

Valence has 2 syllables, split va·lence in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-valence.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with valence?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as valence from its last stressed vowel (/eɪləns/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: enclave.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of valence

  • valences plural
  • valency

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does valence mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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 when it combines with other atoms, etc.

  2. 2

    The number of binding sites of a molecule, such as an antibody or antigen.

  3. 3

    The number of arguments that a verb can have, including its subject, ranging from zero to three or, less commonly, four.

    In this assignment you will analyze each of the following sentences and determine the valence of the highlighted verb.

  4. 4

    A 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).

    anger and fear have negative valence

  5. 5

    The value which a person places on something.

  6. 6

    For a correspondence T on a curve: a number k such that the divisors T(P)+kP are all linearly equivalent.

  7. 7

    Alternative spelling of valance.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Valence in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvalence (chemistry: combining capacity of an atom…)
GermanValenz, Wertigkeit (chemistry: combining capacity of an atom…), Verbvalenz (number of arguments that a verb can have)
Portuguesevalência (chemistry: combining capacity of an atom…)
Spanishvalencia (chemistry: combining capacity of an atom…), diátesis (number of arguments that a verb can have)

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 valence come from?

Etymology 1, noun sense 1.1 (“combining capacity of an atom”) and etymology 1, noun 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’).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after valence