diatom

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English

Etymology 1

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Wikipedia
A view of diatoms through the microscope.

From (deprecated) genus name Diatoma, from Ancient Greek διάτομος (diátomos, “cut through, cut in half”).

Pronunciation

Noun

diatom (plural diatoms)

  1. Any of a group of minute unicellular algae having a siliceous covering of great delicacy, now categorized as class Diatomophyceae or division Bacillariophyta.
    • 1967, George K. Reid, edited by Herbert S. Zim and George S. Fichter, Pond Life, New York: Golden Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 31:
      Diatoms are enclosed in two shells that fit together like a pillbox.
    • 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 287:
      Diatoms are characterized by a cell wall called a fistula made of silica, which usually has two overlapping sections.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

di- +‎ atom

Pronunciation

Noun

diatom (plural diatoms)

  1. (chemistry) A molecule composed of two atoms of the same element; a homonuclear diatomic molecule.
    • 2007, Björn O. Roos, Antonio C. Borin, Laura Gagliardi, “Reaching the Maximum Multiplicity of the Covalent Chemical Bond”, in Angewandte Chemie‎, volume 46, number 9, →DOI, archived from the original on 27 April 2024, pages 1469–1472:
      We show here, through a systematic study of the covalent chemical bond covering the entire periodic system, that the maximum bond multiplicity is six. The maximum value is reached by the tungsten diatom, W2. No other pair of atoms in the periodic system (atomic numbers smaller than about 100) reaches a higher bond order.

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