Nandor's Exhaustive Chemical Words Pages
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So what, exactly, are "chemical words?" Simply put, they are English words that can be spelled using element symbols as 'letters.' In other words, the only characters used to spell these words are element symbols like 'N' (for nitrogen) and 'Na' (for sodium). Thus, we can "spell" the word 'arches' in two ways (ArCHeS -- argon, carbon, helium, sulfer   and   ArCHEs -- argon, carbon, hydrogen, selenium). On the other hand, there is no way at all to "spell" pillar.

So, who might be interested in this page? Anyone who loves chemistry, certainly. High school teachers could use these words to increase the interest in the subject. How about English lovers who want ONe SUPEr ScHoLaSTiC PrOCeSS ThAt He/SHe CaN USe In ClAsS?  Or perhaps chemistry teachers trying to help their student learn their chemical symbols (Question:  Picasso pioneered what short-lived but influential form of art?  Answer: Copper + Bismuth + Samarium = CuBiSm).

See below these lists for important information regarding both the element symbols and the word list that I use.
Click here for some interesting Chemical Words factoids.


Exhaustive Word Lists:

1. A list of all English words (44,313 of them) that can be spelled with element symbols.  [list]

1a. A list of all of the spellings of those words (93,604 ways).  [list]

2.  A list of first names (199 of them) that can be spelled with Chemical symbols.  These names are taken from the most popular baby names (200 from the two major gender groups) in America, from each decade since 1880, according to the Social Security Administration. Combining all of these, 1205 total names were considered.[list]

2a.  A list of the spellings of those names (264 of them).  [list]

3.  A list of countries (36 of them) that can be spelled with Chemical symbols.  This list only includes current countries that have been accepted by the United Nations or are observer states. Thus, for instance, KOsOVO is not (yet?) included.  On the other hand, I have added PAlEsTiNe since it has "observer" status. I also included the obviously interesting political status in the UK. I finally landed on trying all combinations: unitedkingdom, greatbritain, england, scotland, wales, northernireland. Clearly, I had to make some decisions here based on politics... but then, countries are already inherently political. Also, where possible, phrases like "Republic of" have not been considered.  [list]

3a.  A list of the spellings of those countries (62 of them).  [list]


Important information regarding the element symbols I use as characters:

Important information regarding which words I try to spell with those element symbols:

If you use this page in your classroom, &c., please reference me! Also, if you like these pages or have anything interesting that you think should be added, drop me a line:  mark@nandor.org



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Dr. Nandor was most recently a mathematics teacher and former Upper School Head at The Wellington School.  Here is his home page.