helium

1. 1.

   a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in Texas and Kansas)

   SynonymsHeatomic number 2

   Broaderchemical elementnoble gas

Other forms of helium

plural

heliums·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about helium

What does helium mean?

helium means "a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in Texas and Kansas)".

How many syllables are in helium?

helium has 3 syllables: he-li-um. The stress falls on "he". In IPA it is /ˈhiliəm/.

What is another word for helium?

Close synonyms include He, atomic number 2. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is helium a common word?

helium is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.