Standard Lemma guide

arsenic

adj · noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ɑː(ɹ)ˈsɛnɪk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: är-sĕnʹĭk
  • US: /ɑɹˈsɛnɪk/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • UK: /ˈɑː(ɹ).sə.nɪk/
  • US: ärʹsən-ĭk
  • US: /ˈɑɹsənɪk/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AA1 R S AH0 N IH0 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or containing arsenic with a valence of 5.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A toxic grey brittle nonmetallic chemical element (symbol As) with an atomic number of 33.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A single atom of this element.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Arsenic trioxide.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

a very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms; arsenic and arsenic compounds are used as herbicides and insecticides and various alloys; found in arsenopyrite and orpiment and realgar

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: As, atomic number 33

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: chemical element, element

6

noun

Meaning 6

a white powdered poisonous trioxide of arsenic; used in manufacturing glass and as a pesticide (rat poison) and weed killer

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: arsenic trioxide, arsenous anhydride, arsenous oxide, white arsenic, ratsbane

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: trioxide

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵhelh3- Proto-Indo-European *ǵhl̥h3enyomder. Proto-Indo-Iranian *ȷ́hr̥Hanyam Proto-Iranian *jr̥Hanyam Old Median *zaranyam Old Median *kā Old Median *zaraniyakāder. Middle Persian *zarnīkbor. Classical Syriac ܙܪܢܝܟܐ (zarnīḵā)der. Arabic الزَرْنِيخ (az-zarnīḵ)bor. Byzantine Greek ἀρσενικόν (arsenikón)der. Latin arsenicumder. Middle French arsenicbor. Middle English arsenik English arsenic From Middle English arsenik, borrowed from Middle French arsenic, from Latin arsenicum, from Ancient Greek ἀρσενικόν (arsenikón, “yellow arsenic”) (influenced by ἀρσενικός (arsenikós, “potent, virile”)), from Semitic (compare Classical Syriac ܙܪܢܝܟܐ (zarnīḵā), Aramaic 𐡆𐡓𐡍𐡉𐡊𐡀 (zrnykʾ /⁠zarnīḵā⁠/)), from Middle Iranian *zarnīk (compare Persian زرنیخ (zirnīx /zernix, zarnīx /zarnix, “arsenic”), زرنی (zurnī /zorni), Bakhtiari زرنیق (zarniq)), from Old Median *zaraniyakā (compare Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬀 (zaraniia, “golden”), Old Persian 𐎭𐎼𐎴𐎡𐎹 (d-r-n-i-y /⁠daraniya-⁠⁠⁠/, “gold”), Sanskrit हिरण्य (híraṇya, “gold”), Persian زر (zar, “gold”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵhelh3-. More at yellow.

Across languages

Translations

144 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: арсенов (arsenov) — of, or containing arsenic with a valence of 5
  • Italian: arsinico — of, or containing arsenic with a valence of 5
  • Manx: arsnagh — of, or containing arsenic with a valence of 5
  • Polish: arsenowy — of, or containing arsenic with a valence of 5
  • Brazilian Portuguese: arsênico — of, or containing arsenic with a valence of 5
  • European Portuguese: arsénico — of, or containing arsenic with a valence of 5
  • Afrikaans: arseen — chemical element
  • Albanian: rëzëgojë — chemical element
  • Arabic: زِرْنِيخ m or زَرْنِيخ (zirnīḵ) — chemical element
  • Armenian: արսեն (arsen) — chemical element
  • Armenian: մկնդեղ (mkndeġ) — chemical element
  • Armenian: զառիկ (zaṙik) — chemical element
  • Asturian: arsénicu — chemical element
  • Azerbaijani: arsen — chemical element
  • Basque: artseniko — chemical element
  • Belarusian: мыш'я́к (myšʺják) — chemical element
  • Belarusian: аршэннік (aršeńnik) — chemical element
  • Bengali: আর্সেনিক (arśenik) — chemical element
  • Breton: arsenik — chemical element
  • Bulgarian: арсе́н (arsén) — chemical element
  • Burmese: စိန်ဖြူ (cinhpru) — chemical element
  • Burmese: စိန် (cin) — chemical element
  • Catalan: arsènic — chemical element
  • Chinese Mandarin: 砷 (shēn) — chemical element
  • Chinese Mandarin: 砒 (pī) — chemical element
  • Cornish: arsenik — chemical element
  • Cornish: arsenyk — chemical element
  • Czech: arzen — chemical element
  • Danish: arsen — chemical element
  • Dutch: arseen — chemical element
  • Dutch: arsenicum — chemical element
  • Esperanto: arseno — chemical element
  • Estonian: arseen — chemical element
  • Faroese: arsenikk — chemical element
  • Finnish: arseeni — chemical element
  • French: arsenic — chemical element
  • West-Frisian: arsenikum — chemical element
  • Friulian: arsenic — chemical element
  • Galician: arsénico — chemical element
  • Georgian: დარიშხანი (darišxani) — chemical element
  • German: Arsen — chemical element
  • Greek: αρσενικό (arsenikó) — chemical element
  • Hebrew: אַרְסֶן (arsén) — chemical element
  • Hebrew: זַרְנִיךְ (zarních) — chemical element
  • Hindi: नैपाली (naipālī) — chemical element
  • Hindi: आर्सेनिक (ārsenik) — chemical element
  • Hindi: हरताल (hartāl) — chemical element
  • Hungarian: arzén — chemical element
  • Icelandic: arsen — chemical element
  • Ilocano: basikut — chemical element
  • Interlingua: arsenico — chemical element
  • Irish: airsnic — chemical element
  • Irish: arsnaig — chemical element
  • Irish: arsanaic — chemical element
  • Italian: arsenico — chemical element
  • Japanese: ヒ素 (hiso) — chemical element
  • Japanese: 砒素 (hiso) — chemical element
  • Kashubian: arszelnik — chemical element
  • Kazakh: күшән (küşän) — chemical element
  • Khmer: អាសេនិក (ʼaaseenɨk) — chemical element
  • Korean: 비소 (biso) — chemical element
  • Central Kurdish: دارو (daru) — chemical element
  • Kyrgyz: мышьяк (mışyak) — chemical element
  • Lao: ສານຫມູ (sān mū) — chemical element
  • Lao: ສານຫນູ (sān nū) — chemical element
  • Latin: arsenicum — chemical element
  • Latvian: arsēns — chemical element
  • Lingala: aseni class 9a/10a — chemical element
  • Lithuanian: arsenas — chemical element
  • Luxembourgish: Arsen — chemical element
  • Macedonian: арсен (arsen) — chemical element
  • Malay: arsenik — chemical element
  • Malay: arsen — chemical element
  • Maltese: arseniku — chemical element
  • Manx: arsnick — chemical element
  • Mongolian: хүнцэл (xüncel) — chemical element
  • Norman: arsénîn — chemical element
  • Norwegian Bokmål: arsen — chemical element
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: arsen — chemical element
  • Occitan: arsenic — chemical element
  • Persian: آرسنیک (ârsenik) — chemical element
  • Persian: زرنیخ (zarnix) — chemical element
  • Persian: زرنیک (zarnik) — chemical element
  • Persian: زرنی (zarni) — chemical element
  • Persian: مرگ موش (marg-e muš) — chemical element
  • Polish: arsen — chemical element
  • Brazilian Portuguese: arsênio — chemical element
  • European Portuguese: arsénio — chemical element
  • Punjabi: ਸੰਖੀਆ (saṅkhīā) — chemical element
  • Punjabi: ਅਰਸਨਿਕ (arasnik) — chemical element
  • Romanian: arsen — chemical element
  • Russian: мышья́к (myšʹják) — chemical element
  • Russian: арсе́никум (arsénikum) — chemical element
  • Scottish Gaelic: arsnaig — chemical element
  • Serbo-Croatian: а̀рсе̄н — chemical element
  • Serbo-Croatian: àrsēn — chemical element
  • Slovak: arzén — chemical element
  • Slovene: arzen — chemical element
  • Lower Sorbian: arsen — chemical element
  • Upper Sorbian: arsen — chemical element
  • Spanish: arsénico — chemical element
  • Swahili: asenia — chemical element
  • Swedish: arsenik — chemical element
  • Tagalog: basikut — chemical element
  • Tajik: арсен (arsen) — chemical element
  • Tamil: பாசாணம் (pācāṇam) — chemical element
  • Tamil: பிறாக்காண்டம் (piṟākkāṇṭam) — chemical element
  • Tamil: அரசன் (aracaṉ) — chemical element
  • Thai: สารหนู (sǎan-nǔu) — chemical element
  • Thai: อาร์เซนิก (aa-see-nìk) — chemical element
  • Tibetan: བ་བླ (ba bla) — chemical element
  • Turkish: arsenik — chemical element
  • Turkish: sıçanotu — chemical element
  • Ottoman Turkish: صیچان اوتی (sıçan otu) — chemical element
  • Turkmen: myşýak — chemical element
  • Ukrainian: миш'я́к (myšʺják) — chemical element
  • Ukrainian: арсе́н (arsén) — chemical element
  • Urdu: نیپالی (naipālī) — chemical element
  • Urdu: آرسینک (ārsenik) — chemical element
  • Uyghur: ئارسىن (arsin) — chemical element
  • Uyghur: مەرگىمۇش (mergimush) — chemical element
  • Uyghur: سەنكىيا (senkiya) — chemical element
  • Uzbek: myşyák — chemical element
  • Uzbek: margimush — chemical element
  • Uzbek: мышьяк — chemical element
  • Vietnamese: asen — chemical element
  • Volapük: larsenin — chemical element
  • Welsh: ársenig — chemical element
  • Bulgarian: арсеник (arsenik) — arsenic trioxide
  • Bulgarian: мишеморка (mišemorka) — arsenic trioxide
  • Chinese Mandarin: 砒霜 (pīshuāng) — arsenic trioxide
  • Chinese Mandarin: 信石 (xìnshí) — arsenic trioxide
  • Chinese Mandarin: 紅礬 /红矾 (hóngfán) — arsenic trioxide
  • Esperanto: arseniko — arsenic trioxide
  • Finnish: arsenikki — arsenic trioxide
  • Finnish: arseenitrioksidi — arsenic trioxide
  • Japanese: 砒霜石 — arsenic trioxide
  • Japanese: 砒石 (hiseki) — arsenic trioxide
  • Polish: trójtlenek arsenu — arsenic trioxide
  • Polish: arszenik — arsenic trioxide
  • Russian: мышьяко́вистый ангидри́д (myšʹjakóvistyj angidríd) — arsenic trioxide
  • Russian: бе́лый мышья́к (bélyj myšʹják) — arsenic trioxide
  • Spanish: trióxido de arsénico — arsenic trioxide
  • Turkish: arsenik trioksit — arsenic trioxide
Real reading context

arsenic in complete knowledge articles