valency
val·ency/ˈveɪ.lən.si/noun
valency is a noun meaning “Alternative form of valence (“the combining capacity of an atom, functional group, or radical determined by the number of atoms of hydrogen with…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-A-L-E-N-C-Y and has 2 syllables (val·ency), and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of valency is valencies.
What does valency mean?
noun
- 1
Alternative form of valence (“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
The capacity of something to combine with other things, as for example the capability of a vaccine as measured by the number of pathogen serotypes that it can counteract.
vaccine valency
- 3
The number of edges connected to a vertex in a graph.
- 4
Alternative form of valence (“the number of arguments that a verb can have, including its subject, ranging from zero to three or, less commonly, four”).
- 5
Importance, significance.
- 6
Alternative form of valence.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce valency?
- US /ˈveɪ.lən.si/
Valency has 2 syllables, split val·ency in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-valency.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of valency
- valencies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is valency?
Valency appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st 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).
Where does valency come from?
From Late Latin valentia and Latin valentia (“bodily strength; health; vigour”) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state). Valentia is derived from valēns (“healthy, strong, vigorous”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); while valēns is the present active participle of valeō (“to be healthy, sound, or well; to be strong; to have influence or power, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to rule; powerful, strong”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).