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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

element.

One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɛlɪmənt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɛləmənt/Canada, General-American/ˈeləmənt/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.

    Letters are the elements of written language.
  2. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. Any one of the types of atom distinguished by having a certain number of protons in its nucleus.

  3. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. A chemical substance made entirely of one such type of atom; any one of the simplest chemical substances that cannot be decomposed in a chemical reaction or by any chemical means and made up of atoms all having the same number of protons.

  4. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. One of the four basic building blocks of matter in theories of ancient philosophers and alchemists: water, earth, fire, and air.

  5. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. A basic, simple substance out of which something is made, raw material.

    plural-normally
  6. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. A required aspect or component of a cause of action. A deed is regarded as a violation of law only if each element can be proved.

  7. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. One of the objects in a set.

  8. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. One of the entries of a matrix.

  9. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. Any of the teeth of a zip fastener.

  10. A small part of the whole.

    an element of the picture
  11. A small but present amount of a quality, a hint.

    an element of doubt
  12. A factor, one of the conditions contributing to a result.

  13. The sky.

    obsolete
  14. Any one of the heavenly spheres believed to carry the celestial bodies in premodern cosmology.

    obsolete
  15. Atmospheric forces such as strong winds and rains.

    in-plural · with-definite-article
    exposed to the elements
  16. A place or state of being that a person or object is best suited to.

    to be in one’s element
  17. The bread and wine taken at Holy Communion.

    plural-normally
  18. A group of people within a larger group having a particular common characteristic.

    You sometimes find the hooligan element at football matches.
  19. The basic principles of a field of knowledge, basics, fundamentals, rudiments.

    in-plural
  20. A component in electrical equipment, often in the form of a coil, having a high resistance, thereby generating heat when a current is passed through it.

    The element in this electric kettle can heat the water in under a minute.
  21. An infinitesimal interval of a quantity, a differential.

    The element of area in Cartesian coordinates is dx dy.
  22. An orbital element; one of the parameters needed to uniquely specify a particular orbit.

  23. One of the conceptual objects in a markup language, usually represented in text by tags.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English element, from Old French element, from Latin elementum (“a first principle, element, rudiment”) (see further etymology there). The verb is from Middle English elementen, from the noun.

verb/ˈɛlɪmənt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɛləmənt/Canada, General-American/ˈeləmənt/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To compound (something) out of elements.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To constitute and be the elements of (something).

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English element, from Old French element, from Latin elementum (“a first principle, element, rudiment”) (see further etymology there). The verb is from Middle English elementen, from the noun.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.