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sodium chloride definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a white crystalline solid consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl) [syn: sodium chloride, common salt]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1868 an ionic crystalline chemical compound consisting of equal numbers of sodium and chlorine atoms ; salt 1a

Britannica Concise

Inorganic compound of sodium and chlorine, a salt in which ionic bonds hold the two components in the familiar white crystals. Salt is essential to health as a source of sodium; blood and all other physiological fluids are dilute salt solutions. One of the most widely used materials of the chemical industry, it is used in manufacturing chlorine, caustic soda, sodium carbonate, bicarbonate of soda, soap, and chlorine bleach, as well as in ceramic glazes, metallurgy, food preservation, curing of hides, road de-icing, water softening, photography, and in many consumer products, incl. mineral waters, mouthwashes, and table salt itself. It is mined, extracted from sea water, and obtained from dry salt lakes called pans. See also halite.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sodium So"di*um, n. [NL., fr.E. soda.] (Chem.) A common metallic element of the alkali group, in nature always occuring combined, as in common salt, in albite, etc. It is isolated as a soft, waxy, white, unstable metal, so readily oxidized that it combines violently with water, and to be preserved must be kept under petroleum or some similar liquid. Sodium is used combined in many salts, in the free state as a reducer, and as a means of obtaining other metals (as magnesium and aluminium) is an important commercial product. Symbol Na (Natrium). Atomic weight 23. Specific gravity 0.97. Sodium amalgam, an alloy of sodium and mercury, usually produced as a gray metallic crystalline substance, which is used as a reducing agent, and otherwise. Sodium bicarbonate, a white crystalline substance, HNaCO3, with a slight alkaline taste resembling that of sodium carbonate. It is found in many mineral springs and also produced artificially,. It is used in cookery, in baking powders, and as a source of carbonic acid gas (carbon dioxide) for soda water. Called also cooking soda, saleratus, and technically, acid sodium carbonate, primary sodium carbonate, sodium dicarbonate, etc. Sodium carbonate, a white crystalline substance, Na2CO3.10H2O, having a cooling alkaline taste, found in the ashes of many plants, and produced artifically in large quantities from common salt. It is used in making soap, glass, paper, etc., and as alkaline agent in many chemical industries. Called also sal soda, washing soda, or soda. Cf. Sodium bicarbonate, above and Trona. Sodium chloride, common, or table, salt, NaCl. Sodium hydroxide, a white opaque brittle solid, NaOH, having a fibrous structure, produced by the action of quicklime, or of calcium hydrate (milk of lime), on sodium carbonate. It is a strong alkali, and is used in the manufacture of soap, in making wood pulp for paper, etc. Called also sodium hydrate, and caustic soda. By extension, a solution of sodium hydroxide.