sodium

«sodium» in Mova's school dictionary: a soft, silvery-white metal element with the symbol Na… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (sodium, uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Sodium is a soft, silvery-white metal element with the symbol Na; it is so reactive that it reacts strongly with water, sometimes fizzing and catching fire, so it is never found pure in nature. tree →

2) Sodium is part of many compounds, most famously sodium chloride, which is common table salt; «sodium» on a food label usually means salt in the food. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons sodium is in the periodic table among the alkali metals; teachers show a tiny piece fizzing across water behind a safety screen. In health and food lessons, food labels list sodium or salt, and eating too much can raise blood pressure. Street lights used to glow orange because they used sodium vapour. Phrases: sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), low sodium, sodium lights.

examples

• Table salt is made of sodium and chlorine. tree →
• Sodium is so soft you can cut it with a knife. tree →
• The teacher dropped a tiny piece of sodium into water and it whizzed around. tree →
• Too much sodium in food is not good for your heart. tree →
• The label shows how much sodium is in the crisps. tree →
• Old orange street lights were sodium lamps. tree →
• Sodium bicarbonate makes cakes rise. tree →
• The symbol for sodium is Na, from its Latin name «natrium». tree →

note

Uncountable: «too much sodium», not «a sodium». Pronounced «SOH-dee-um». Symbol trap: sodium is Na, not So or S (S is sulphur). Safety: pure sodium is dangerous and only used by teachers or scientists. On food labels in some countries, the salt amount is about two and a half times the sodium amount.

In the corpora

• Salt is made of sodium and chlorine; sugar is made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
• Sodium metal reacts with air within seconds, so laboratories keep it under oil.
• Every kind of metal gives back its own colour: strontium red, barium green, sodium yellow, copper blue.
• The colours of fireworks come from different metals: strontium gives red, barium green, sodium yellow and copper blue.
• Mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature, and sodium is a metal soft enough to cut with a knife.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «sodium» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.