Uranics

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Containing or related to the elements or compounds derived from uranium
2. Pertaining to the study, extraction, or usage of uranium and its isotopes
3. Associated with the chemical properties and applications of uranium-based materials

Etymology: "Uranics" is the plural of "uranic," an adjective used in chemistry for compounds in which uranium has a higher valence, the form the element takes in uranium(VI) compounds. The noun use is a chemical shorthand for such compounds. The base word goes back to 1789, when the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth named the element "uranium" after the planet Uranus, which William Herschel had discovered only eight years earlier. Klaproth was working on a black mineral, pitchblende, and he chose the name for the newly isolated metal because it was then the most recent planet, and the name followed the classical pattern of naming metals after heavenly bodies. The suffix "-ic" comes from Greek "-ikos" through Latin "-icus," and in chemistry it marks a compound in which an element has its higher valence, so "uranic" describes uranium in that state. The plural form simply groups these compounds together.

Synonyms: uranium compounds, uranium minerals, radioactive elements, actinides, uranium ores