gallium

noun

gal·​li·​um ˈga-lē-əm 

: a bluish-white metallic element obtained especially as a by-product in refining various ores and used especially in semiconductors and optoelectronic devices see Chemical Elements Table

Examples of gallium in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These materials include aluminum, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, electrical steel, fluorine, gallium, iridium, lithium, magnesium, graphite, neodymium, nickel, platinum, praseodymium, silicon, silicon carbide and terbium. —Sahit Muja, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025

Veettil believes the precision process could later be adapted to extract other valuable metals from solar panels, including gallium, indium, and copper. —Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 15 Aug. 2025

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University led by Rongming Chu, a professor of electrical engineering, have designed a gallium nitride chip capable of operating at 800 °C —hot enough to melt table salt. —IEEE Spectrum, 11 Aug. 2025

Following export controls in Aug. 2023 on gallium and germanium, two metals used in chipmaking, China, a year later, then announced similar restrictions on exports of antimony, which is used in bullets, nuclear weapons production and lead-acid batteries. —Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, 6 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from Gallia "Gaul, France" (going back to Latin) + -ium -ium

Note: The element was named by the first person to isolate it, the French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912), reported in "Caractères chimiques et spectroscopiques dʼun nouveau métal, le Gallium, découvert dans une blende de la mine de Pierrefitte, vallée dʼArgelès," Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de lʼAcadémie des Sciences, tome 81 (juillet-décembre 1875), pp. 493-95. In a later publication, Lecoq de Boisbaudran explained the origin of the name: " … jʼai aperçu les premiers indices de lʼexistence dʼun nouvel élément, que jʼai nommé «gallium» en lʼhonneur de la France (Gallia)" (" … I perceived the first signs of the existence of a new element, which I named "gallium" in honor of France (Gallia)") ("Sur un nouveau métal, le gallium," Annales de chimie et de physique, 5. série, tome 10 [1877], p. 103). The later hypothesis that gallium was formed from Latin gallus "cock," as a translation of the chemistʼs surname "Lecoq," is without apparent foundation. (Though the evidence is clear, there is on the other hand no indication that Lecoq de Boisbaudran ever explicitly denied the association.)

First Known Use

1875, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing gallium

• gallium arsenide

Rhymes for gallium

• allium
• pallium
• thallium

Kids Definition

gallium

noun

gal·​li·​um ˈgal-ē-əm 

: a bluish white metallic element see element

Medical Definition

gallium

noun

gal·​li·​um ˈgal-ē-əm 

: a rare bluish white metallic element that is hard and brittle at low temperatures but melts just above room temperature and expands on freezing and that is used in the form of its hydrated nitrate salt Ga(NO₃)₃·9H₂O to treat hypercalcemia caused by certain cancers

—symbol Ga see Chemical Elements Table