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potassium

UK/pəˈtæsiəm/US/pəˈtæsiəm/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,558 of 15,258leans written

Potassium is a soft metal the body needs, found in bananas. Potassium levels, low in potassium, potassium salts.

The body uses it with sodium to fire nerves and beat the heart, and levels are kept in a narrow band because too much or too little stops the heart. It is faintly radioactive in nature. Its symbol K comes from kalium, the Latin name.

Unknown authorUnknown author · CC BY 3.0

Definitions of potassium

  1. 1nounpotassiumA soft metal the body needs in small amounts.B2+

    “Bananas are a good source of potassium.”

potassium is an element.

Where it comes from

Coined by Humphry Davy in 1807 from potash, the plant ash it was first drawn from. The symbol K comes from the Latin kalium.

coined by Q131761 in 1807, from potassa + -ium.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

potassium in the wild

  • Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to form flaky white potassium peroxide in only seconds of exposure.

    Potassium

  • Elemental potassium reacts vigorously with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite hydrogen emitted in the reaction, and burning with a lilac-colored flame.

    Potassium

  • Potassium chloride (KCl, or potassium salt) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine.

    Potassium chloride

  • The functions of potassium and sodium in living organisms are quite different.

    Potassium in biology

  • However, potassium cyanide kills so rapidly its taste has not been reliably documented.

    Potassium cyanide

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.