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Added 9 October 2026

valence

/ˈveɪl(ə)ns/ noun

In Latin: valentia Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about valence at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

(biology) a relative capacity to unite or react or interact as with antigens or a biological substrate.
(chemistry) a property of atoms or radicals; their combining power given in terms of the number of hydrogen atoms (or the equivalent).

Origin

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’).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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