Other forms: magnesia
Magnesium is a light metal that burns with a brilliant white flame. Magnesium ribbon, a magnesium alloy, magnesium supplements.
It burns so hot that water makes it worse, splitting into hydrogen and feeding the fire — which is why a magnesium fire needs a special extinguisher. It was the original photographic flash. The body needs it, and it is in green leaves and nuts.
1nounmagnesiumA light metal that burns with a brilliant white flame.
“The teacher lit a strip of magnesium, and we had to look away from the glare.”
magnesium is a metal.
Named after Magnesia, a district in Thessaly, and coined by Humphry Davy in the early nineteenth century.
Ancient Greek
μαγνησία
New Latin
magnēsium
English, today
magnesium
Built from
From New Latin magnēsium, from Ancient Greek μαγνησία, after Μαγνησία (“Magnesia”), a region in Thessaly. coined by Q131761, as a modification of his original suggestion, magnium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA