cation

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κᾰτῐόν (kătĭón), neuter present participle of κᾰ́τειμῐ (kắteimĭ, “to go down, come down”), from κᾰτᾰ- (kătă-, “downwards, down, cata-”) +‎ εἶμῐ (eîmĭ, “to go, come”). Coined by English polymath William Whewell in 1834 for Michael Faraday, who introduced it later that year. By surface analysis, cat(a)- +‎ ion.

• enPR: kătʹ-ī-ən
• IPA^(key): /ˈkætˌaɪ.ən/, /ˈkætˌaɪ.ɑn/

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cation (plural cations)

1. (physical chemistry) A positively charged ion: one that would be attracted to the cathode in electrolysis.

   Antonym: anion

   Hypernym: ion

• “cation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• cation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “cation”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “cation”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• Catino, actino-, action, atonic

• IPA^(key): /ka.tjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

cation m (plural cations)

1. cation

• “cation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• action, contai

Borrowed from French cation.

cation m (plural cationi)

1. cation

• cationic