Standard Lemma guide

sodium

noun · 3 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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsəʊ.dɪəm/
  • Canada, General-American: sōʹdē-əm
  • Canada, General-American: /ˈsoʊ.di.əm/
  • Canada, General-American: [ˈsoʊ.ɾi.əm]
  • California: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ˈsəʉ.di.əm/
  • Australian: [ˈsəʉ.ɾi.əm]
  • Australian: [ˈsɐʉ.ɾi.əm] some speakers
  • New-Zealand: /ˈsɐʉ.di.əm/
  • New-Zealand: [ˈsɐʉ.ɾi.əm]
  • rhymes with -əʊdiəm
  • CMU ARPABET: S OW1 D IY0 AH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The chemical element (symbol Na) with an atomic number of 11 and atomic weight of 22.990. It is a soft, waxy, silvery, reactive alkali metal that is never found unbound in nature.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Employing sodium.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: attributive, uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group; occurs abundantly in natural compounds (especially in salt water); burns with a yellow flame and reacts violently in water; occurs in sea water and in the mineral halite (rock salt)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Na, atomic number 11

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: metallic element, metal

History

Etymology

Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from soda + -ium.

Across languages

Translations

123 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: natrium — reactive metal
  • Albanian: natrium — reactive metal
  • Arabic: صُودِيُوم (ṣūdiyūm) — reactive metal
  • Aragonese: sodio — reactive metal
  • Armenian: նատրիում (natrium) — reactive metal
  • Asturian: sodiu — reactive metal
  • Azerbaijani: natrium — reactive metal
  • Basque: sodioa — reactive metal
  • Belarusian: на́трый (nátryj) — reactive metal
  • Bengali: সোডিয়াম (śōḍiẏam) — reactive metal
  • Breton: natriom — reactive metal
  • Breton: sodiom — reactive metal
  • Bulgarian: на́трий (nátrij) — reactive metal
  • Burmese: ဆိုဒီယမ် (hcuidiyam) — reactive metal
  • Catalan: sodi — reactive metal
  • Chinese: na — reactive metal
  • Chinese Mandarin: 鈉 /钠 (nà) — reactive metal
  • Cornish: sodyum — reactive metal
  • Corsican: sodiu — reactive metal
  • Czech: sodík — reactive metal
  • Danish: natrium — reactive metal
  • Dhivehi: ސޯޑިއަމް (sōḍiam̊) — reactive metal
  • Dutch: natrium — reactive metal
  • Esperanto: natrio — reactive metal
  • Estonian: naatrium — reactive metal
  • Faroese: natrium — reactive metal
  • Finnish: natrium — reactive metal
  • French: sodium — reactive metal
  • West-Frisian: natrium — reactive metal
  • Friulian: sodi — reactive metal
  • Galician: sodio — reactive metal
  • Georgian: ნატრიუმი (naṭriumi) — reactive metal
  • German: Natrium — reactive metal
  • Greek: νάτριο (nátrio) — reactive metal
  • Haitian Creole: sodyòm — reactive metal
  • Hawaiian: sodiuma — reactive metal
  • Hebrew: נַתְרָן (natrán) — reactive metal
  • Hindi: क्षारातु (kṣārātu) — reactive metal
  • Hindi: सोडियम (soḍiyam) — reactive metal
  • Hungarian: nátrium — reactive metal
  • Icelandic: natrín — reactive metal
  • Icelandic: natríum — reactive metal
  • Ido: natro — reactive metal
  • Indonesian: natrium — reactive metal
  • Interlingua: sodium — reactive metal
  • Interlingua: natrium — reactive metal
  • Irish: sóidiam — reactive metal
  • Italian: sodio — reactive metal
  • Japanese: ナトリウム (natoriumu) — reactive metal
  • Javanese: natrium — reactive metal
  • Kannada: ಸೋಡಿಯಮ್ (sōḍiyam) — reactive metal
  • Kashubian: natrijô — reactive metal
  • Kazakh: натрий (natrii) — reactive metal
  • Khmer: សូឌីយ៉ូម (soudiiyoum) — reactive metal
  • Khmer: សូដ្យូម (soudyoum) — reactive metal
  • Korean: 나트륨 (nateuryum) — reactive metal
  • Korean: 소듐 (sodyum) — reactive metal
  • Northern Kurdish: natrîyûm — reactive metal
  • Northern Kurdish: sodyûm — reactive metal
  • Kyrgyz: натрий (natriy) — reactive metal
  • Lao: ໂຊດຽມ (sō dīam) — reactive metal
  • Latin: natrium — reactive metal
  • Latvian: nātrijs — reactive metal
  • Lingala: sodu class 9a/10a — reactive metal
  • Lithuanian: natris — reactive metal
  • Low German: natrium — reactive metal
  • Luxembourgish: Natrium — reactive metal
  • Macedonian: натриум (natrium) — reactive metal
  • Malay: natrium — reactive metal
  • Malayalam: സോഡിയം (sōḍiyaṁ) — reactive metal
  • Maltese: sodju — reactive metal
  • Manx: sodjum — reactive metal
  • Māori: konutai — reactive metal
  • Marathi: सोडियम (soḍiyam) — reactive metal
  • Mongolian: натри (natri) — reactive metal
  • Navajo: soodin — reactive metal
  • Norman: sôdgium — reactive metal
  • Norwegian Bokmål: natrium — reactive metal
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: natrium — reactive metal
  • Occitan: sòdi — reactive metal
  • Pashto: سوډیم — reactive metal
  • Persian: سدیم (sodiyom) — reactive metal
  • Polish: sód — reactive metal
  • Portuguese: sódio — reactive metal
  • Punjabi: ਸੋਡੀਅਮ (soḍīama) — reactive metal
  • Quechua: natriyu — reactive metal
  • Romanian: sodiu — reactive metal
  • Romanian: natriu — reactive metal
  • Russian: на́трий (nátrij) — reactive metal
  • Sanskrit: विक्षार (vikṣāra) — reactive metal
  • Scottish Gaelic: sòidiam — reactive metal
  • Serbo-Croatian: натријум — reactive metal
  • Serbo-Croatian: natrijum — reactive metal
  • Serbo-Croatian: natrij — reactive metal
  • Sicilian: sodiu — reactive metal
  • Slovak: sodík — reactive metal
  • Slovene: natrij — reactive metal
  • Spanish: sodio — reactive metal
  • Swahili: natiri — reactive metal
  • Swahili: sodiamu — reactive metal
  • Swedish: natrium — reactive metal
  • Tagalog: sodyo — reactive metal
  • Tajik: натрий (natriy) — reactive metal
  • Tamil: உவர்மம் (uvarmam) — reactive metal
  • Tamil: சோடியம் (cōṭiyam) — reactive metal
  • Tatar: натрий (natriy) — reactive metal
  • Telugu: సోడియమ్ (sōḍiyam) — reactive metal
  • Thai: โซเดียม (soo-dîiam) — reactive metal
  • Tibetan: བུལ་རྫས (bul rdzas) — reactive metal
  • Tibetan: སོ་ཌི་ཡམ (so ḍi yam) — reactive metal
  • Turkish: sodyum — reactive metal
  • Turkmen: natriý — reactive metal
  • Ukrainian: на́трій (nátrij) — reactive metal
  • Urdu: سوڈیم (soḍiyam) — reactive metal
  • Uyghur: ناترىي (natriy) — reactive metal
  • Uzbek: natriy — reactive metal
  • Uzbek: натрий (natriy) — reactive metal
  • Vietnamese: natri — reactive metal
  • Vietnamese: chất muối — reactive metal
  • Volapük: natrin — reactive metal
  • Walloon: sodiom — reactive metal
  • Welsh: sodiwm — reactive metal
  • Yiddish: נאַטריום (natryum) — reactive metal
Real reading context

sodium in complete knowledge articles