Standard Lemma guide

lanthanide

noun · 4 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.

  • lăn'thənīd
  • /ˈlænθənaɪd/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of the 15 rare earth elements from lanthanum to lutetium in the periodic table; because their outermost orbitals are not filled, they have very similar chemistry; below them are the actinides.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

Any of the 14 rare earth elements from lanthanum to ytterbium (lutetium is excluded by some authors as it is a d-block rather than an f-block element).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Any of the 14 rare earth elements from cerium to lutetium (lanthanum having been excluded because it was thought to be a d-block element in the past).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

any element of the lanthanide series (atomic numbers 57 through 71)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rare earth, rare-earth element, lanthanoid, lanthanon

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: group, grouping

Narrower terms: terbium metal

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English lanthanium Proto-Indo-European *dheh1-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idusder. English -ide English lanthanide From lanthanium + -ide.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: lantanied — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Chinese Mandarin: 鑭系元素 /镧系元素 (lánxì yuánsù) — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Finnish: lantanidi — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Finnish: lantanoidi — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • French: lanthanide — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • German: Lanthanoid — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Greek: λανθανίδιο (lanthanídio) — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Hungarian: lantanoida — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Icelandic: lanþaníð — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Icelandic: lantaníð — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Italian: lantanide — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Japanese: ランタノイド (rantanoido) — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Romanian: lantanidă — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Russian: лантано́ид (lantanóid) — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Serbo-Croatian: lantanoid — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Spanish: lantánido — A subset of the rare-earth elements
  • Turkish: lantanit — A subset of the rare-earth elements