🧪 A glass mixture 🍄 A slime mold

didymium

9.9

A mixture of rare earth elements used to make special glass and light filters

noun
/ˈdɪdɪmiəm/

Archaic

: didimio

Old textbooks sometimes list didymium as a single element, but it is actually a mixture.
didymium oxide

Examples

The scientist used didymium to create special glass filters for laboratory experiments.
Glassblowers value didymium for its ability to filter out certain wavelengths of light.
The glassmaker used didymium to enhance the color of the glass.
Did you know that didymium was once considered a single element?
The scientist used didymium to create special glass filters for laboratory experiments.
Glassblowers value didymium for its ability to filter out certain wavelengths of light.
Old textbooks sometimes list didymium as a single element, but it is actually a mixture.

Surface Forms

didymium singular

didymia plural

Morphology

didymium = didym + ium

Although the form combines a Greek combining form and the element-forming suffix '-ium', the specific meaning (a historical rare-earth mixture rather than a single, regular chemical element) is not derivable by typical learners from those parts.

Etymology

Didymium comes from the Greek didymos meaning 'twin', and chemists chose the name because what looked like one element turned out to be two 'twin' rare earth elements, praseodymium and neodymium, which explains why didymium is actually a mixture used in special glass and filters.